AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 



Amelia Peabody Tileston 

and her 

Canteens for the Serbs 




BOSTON 
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS 






COPYRIGHT, 1920, MARY WILDER TILESTON 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 



DEC 17 1920 
©Ci,A604591 



^ I 



u 



PREFACE 

THIS little volume is a memorial of Amelia Pea- 
body Tileston and her work for the Serbians. I 
am giving a brief outline of her life, preceded by a 
sketch of the experiences of Serbia during the World 
War, drawn from various sources, and followed by 
selections from her letters from the Balkans from 1916 
to 1920. It is meant to keep her in remembrance, and 
also the bravery, the sufferings, and the needs of the 
nation in which she was so deeply interested. 

Mary Wilder Tileston 



CONTENTS 

Serbia in the World War 1 

Amelia Peabody Tileston 13 

Letters of 1915 43 

Letters of 1916 51 

Letters of 1917 66 

District Visiting in Macedonia 87 

Letters of 1918 108 

Letters of 1919 134 

Letters of 1920 163 

Memorial Service 171 

Tributes to her Memory 185 



Grateful acknowledgments are due to Mrs. Ruth 
S. Farnam, author of ''A Nation at Bay," and 
Messrs. Bobbs-Merrill Company, the publishers, for 
their kindness in permitting the use in this book of 
the photograph of Miss Emily Simmonds. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Amelia Peabody Tileston Frontispiece 

Amelia Peabody Tileston 16 

Amelia Peabody Tileston 20 

Refugees at Vodena 34 

Emily Simmonds 58 

Refugees at Vodsna 78 

Children's Camp at Avala 144 

Hotel Bregalnitza. Emily Simmonds and 

THE Seven Workers in Front .... 152 

American Free Canteen 161 

Amelia's Room and Svetozar 167 



SERBIA IN THE WORLD WAR 



SERBIA IN THE WORLD WAR 

After the fatal battle of Kossovo, June 28, 
1389, Serbia was under the iron rule of the 
Turks for nearly five hundred years, until 
finally freed by the Treaty of Berlin, 1878. 
She had kept her love of country and longing 
for freedom through all those weary centuries, 
and rejoiced in throwing off the yoke at last. 

In the early autumn of 1912, she united with 
Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro in the Bal- 
kan League against Turkey, and, in a few 
weeks, the campaign ended in overwhelming 
victory, and much Turkish territory was divided 
among the members of the League. In 1913, 
Bulgaria, dissatisfied with the portion awarded 
her by the Treaty of London, made secret 
preparations, and, at the end of June, suddenly 
attacked her late Serbian and Greek alhes. 
Roumania joined them before long, and Bul- 
garia was obliged to surrender. 

Serbia was involved in war again, in 1914, 
for the third time within three years. Arch- 
duke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Hapsburg 



4 SERBIA IN 

throne, and his morganatic wife, were assassi- 
nated, under mysterious circumstances, in the 
streets of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, June 
28, 1914. On July 28, the Austro-Hungarian 
Minister at Belgrade handed to the Serbian 
Government an ultimatum asserting that Ser- 
bia had been aware that these murders were 
being planned, and was responsible for them, 
and making many extreme demands for re- 
dress. All these were granted except the last 
one, which would have involved the surrender 
of her independent sovereignty, and this Serbia 
offered to lay before the Hague Tribunal. The 
Austrian Minister departed at once, breaking 
off diplomatic relations, and his government 
immediately declared war, and suddenly bom- 
barded the defenceless city of Belgrade, the 
capital, on July 30. The Serbian ministry, and 
the diplomatic corps and other officials, had 
previously left the city, and had made Nish 
the seat of government. By August 24, the 
Austro-Hungarian army had been driven from 
their soil. A second invasion was attempted in 
September, and again the enemy were driven 
back. In November, the Austrians made a 



THE WORLD WAR 5 

third attempt, and entered Belgrade in triumph 
early in December. The Serbs were now pro- 
vided by the Allies with munitions, which were 
sorely needed, and, by desperate fighting, they 
drove the invaders, who were many times their 
number, out of their country, and took sixty 
thousand prisoners. There were great rejoic- 
ings at that Christmas season, and peace 
reigned for many months, but they little knew 
the terrible experiences which were before them. 

The cruelties of the Austrians and Hunga- 
rians in their first and subsequent retreats were 
indescribably horrible, especially their treat- 
ment of women. In an official report upon 
these atrocities, it is said that the outrages com- 
mitted against the civil population were even 
more dreadful than those in Belgium. Whole 
villages were destroyed, many victims were 
dreadfully mutilated before being killed, and 
many were burned alive. 

The Austrian prisoners who had been taken 
were a source of untold suffering to Serbia. 
Scattered through the country, they spread 
far and wide the terrible typhus fever with 
which many of them were infected. It raged 



6 SERBIA IN 

for three or four months, being nearly over 
about the end of April. Its ravages were like 
those of the Black Death in the Middle Ages. 
It is said that, at first, about eighty per cent 
died of those who were attacked; later, the 
percentage was reduced to twenty per cent, 
but over seventy thousand died. Nearly a 
third of the Serbian doctors died, and two- 
thirds of the remainder had the fever. Serbia 
cried for help to her Allies, and soon British, 
French, and Russian units v/ere hurried to her 
assistance, and America, also, sent relief. 
Many of these doctors, orderlies, and nurses 
fell victims in their turn. 

During this spring of 1915, Germany and 
Austria were preparing to attempt to cut their 
way to Constantinople through Serbia, and the 
Serbs, knowing that they could not resist them 
effectually alone, applied to the Allies for help. 
If the latter had reinforced the Serbian army 
of two hundred and fifty thousand men with 
as many more British and French soldiers, 
which was all that was asked, the whole course 
of events might have been different. The 
Greeks would probably have joined them, and 



THE WORLD WAR 7 

the Roumanians also ; Bulgaria would not have 
dared to join the Central Powers, the situation 
in the Dardanelles would have been relieved, 
and the war might have ended in a few weeks 
or months. But the Allies were under a fatal 
delusion about Bulgaria, believing that she 
would soon join their cause, and supply the 
military aid needed, herseK. 

Three hundred thousand Austro-German 
troops began an assault on the Danube frontier, 
and four hundred thousand Bulgarians poured 
in from the east. The Serbian army fought 
with wonderful heroism, but could not stand 
against the long-distance guns of the enemy; 
and, being out-nimabered nearly three to one, 
and not having sufficient ammunition, it was 
forced to retreat. By great mihtary skill, this 
retreat was saved from becoming a rout, but it 
involved untold sufferings. 

It was the retreat not only of the army, but 
of a large number of the Serbian people. An 
endless stream of refugees poured along the 
road. Thousands of women and children, old 
men and babies, driven from their homes by 
fear of the cruel, advancing enemy, were mingled 



8 SERBIA IN 

with the army in their difl&cult journey through 
the almost impassable mountains of Montene- 
gro and Albania. Day after day, and week 
after week, they plodded on painfully, over 
passes five thousand feet high, among moun- 
tains eight thousand feet in height, through 
deep mud and snow, more and more dying from 
the constantly increasing cold, the greater and 
greater deficiency of food, and the exhausting 
fatigue of the journey. Of the thirty thousand 
boys who were with them, less than half sur- 
vived to reach the Albanian coast, and only 
five or six thousand lived to arrive at their 
final place of refuge. The Italian navy trans- 
ported the army to Corfu, and the refugees 
were taken to Corsica, and southern France. 

Many thousand Serbian soldiers died after 
reaching Corfu, in consequence of the hard- 
ships they had undergone. The little neigh- 
boring island of Vido, the quarantine camp of 
the sick, was called the ''Island of Death," so 
great was the mortality there, especially after 
a severe epidemic of cholera developed. 

The army had a period of comparative rest 
for several months, and, by April, 1916, they 



THE WORLD WAR 9 

began to return to the field to take up their 
difficult task. Between early April and June, 
a hundred thousand in number, they were trans- 
ported to the Macedonian front, where, at 
Salonika, they joined the Franco-British troops 
of over three hundred thousand men, Italian 
and Russian contingents being added by the 
end of July. The whole was called the Army of 
the Orient. The post of honor, and the most 
difficult part of the whole front, was assigned 
to the Serbian army. The campaign began in 
August, and, by tremendous efforts, and heroic 
fighting, under Field Marshal Mishitch, they 
succeeded in taking the town of Monastir, 
November 19, 1916, and were once more in 
Serbia. But, for nearly two years, they were 
unable to drive the enemy from the heights 
above the town, from which the Bulgarians 
continually bombed it, causing great destruc- 
tion of life and buildings, and the campaign 
settled into trench warfare, with no essential 
gains on either side. 

For nearly three years, the Bulgarians treated 
the civil population of Serbia with incredible 
cruelty, and the Serbs were rapidly perishing 



10 SERBIA IN 

from starvation and brutal treatment. The 
Austrians, also, oppressed them most unmer- 
cifully. The invaders requisitioned all the 
materials of production, and machinery, robbed 
the peasants of their horses, oxen, carts, cattle, 
poultry, and every kind of farming and house- 
hold utensils, took possession of the harvests, 
and crushed the people by enormous taxes. 
They deported and interned very large numbers 
of civilians, leaving their families hopelessly 
destitute. It was said that more than eighty 
thousand men perished from disease, cold, 
hunger, and hard labor in the Austrian and 
Hungarian prison camps. Thirty thousand 
men, women, and children were deported from 
three provinces, and interned in Asia Minor. 
Eight thousand women and young girls were 
destined to be delivered to the Turks, but many 
of them, preferring death, threw themselves 
from the trains. 

In March, 1918, after Field Marshal Foch 
had taken command of all the Allied forces, he 
ordered the Army of the Orient to prepare for 
a general offensive. They fought with great 
vigor and success, and on the 29th of September, 



THE WORLD WAR 11 

the Bulgarians begged for an armistice. On 
October 12, the Army of the Orient captured 
Nish, which cut the Berhn-Constantinople rail- 
way, and Turkey sued for peace, a few days 
later. Austria soon did the same, leaving Ger- 
many alone, and she, too, asked for an armis- 
tice, which was granted November 11, 1918. 

After this, for some time, the condition of 
Serbia was even worse than before, as the enemy 
had carried off everything that he could take, 
and had destroyed what he could not remove. 
The country is gradually recovering, but it will 
need sympathy, and intelligent, generous assist- 
ance for some ;^ time to come. Medical, agri- 
cultural, and educational help, and reUef for 
the hundreds of thousands of fatherless chil- 
dren, are among its most urgent needs. 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

Amelia Peabody Tileston was born on 
October 30, 1872, in Dorchester, Massachu- 
setts. She was the fourth of the seven children 
of John Boies Tileston and Mary Wilder Foote. 
When she was two years old, her father bought 
a farm in Concord, Massachusetts, where the 
family lived for eight years. It was a milk 
farm of two hundred acres, on the slope of 
Punkatasset Hill, running down to the Con- 
cord River, and it gave the children the free- 
dom and varied interests of country life. 
Amelia was a very pretty and intelligent child, 
with blue eyes and golden hair, full of energy 
and spirit. 

After 1882, when the farm was sold, they 
lived for a few years in Salem, and then in 
Brookline, where she enjoyed greatly the com- 
panionship of other children, which she had 
not had before. In Brookline, she went to 
Miss Baker^s school, and then, from Milton, 
to which town the family moved in 1889, she 
went to St. Agnes' School in Albany for a 



16 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

year, and, afterwards, to Miss Folsom^s School 
in Boston. 

She made her first trip to Europe in 1895, 
and went abroad many times afterward. She 
was especially fond of Italy, its scenery and 
art, and people; and of Cortina, in the Tyrol, 
where she took long tramps through the beauti- 
ful mountain country — very different from her 
fatiguing foot-journeys in her work in the 
Balkans. 

A friend writes, '^I met her in London in 
the summer of 1895, on her first visit to Europe, 
when she was twenty-two years old, and I 
was interested to note the impression she made 
upon my English friends. 

''Her personality was striking and her charm 
rare. With what may be called a wealth of 
golden hair, daintily piquant features, clear 
blue eyes, and delicate coloring, she was a 
vivid figure that drew all eyes. Gifted with 
unusual vigor of body and mind, her expres- 
sion was always alert and challenging, and her 
wit lighted up every conversation in which she 
shared. 

''One of the most striking things about her 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 17 

was her love for honesty of character, and its 
reverse, a scorn for hypocrisy and sham. With 
evil that frankly confessed itself as such, there 
might be some dealing; but woe to the sinner 
masquerading as the saint — in her presence 
his sense of security fled, and her scorn, when 
it broke, was deadly and uncompromising. 

'^Inevitably, as time passed on, she became 
more conscious of the needless suffering, and 
the seeming injustices of life, and of the in- 
adequacy of the forces that work for correc- 
tion. But her spirit remained undaunted. No 
task was too small for her patience, none too 
large for her courage, and resourcefulness. The 
'instant need of things' sent its clear call to her. 
Her methods were direct and forceful, ghort- 
cutting the devious paths of officialdom when 
possible (or even impossible!), making enemies, 
creating great and immortal friendships. 

''When the Great War came, with its im- 
pelling cry to natures such as hers, she gave a 
service disciplined in patience, trained in en- 
durance, eager in love and hope. There are 
such natures; but few of them stand up under 
the agony and disillusionment of the war as 



18 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

did hers. All that she was she carried with her 
to the very gates of death." 

Another friend writes, ^^I wish that I could 
express something of the impression that AmeUa 
always made on me. It would take a skilful 
pen indeed to adequately picture her — her 
spirit, vivid and sparkling, was like a brilliant 
bird that flashes before one's eyes, and is gone 
in the shadows of the forest. 

''She never ceased to delight and sometimes 
baffle me; and yet when I stopped trying to 
analyze her and simply loved her, as I did 
indeed, and well she knew it, she then showed 
herself as simple as she was complex, as gentle 
and compassionate as she was critical and 
severe. I used to feel almost bewildered by 
the complicated way in which she often reacted 
to what was happening. And yet her nature 
was peculiarly simple and direct. In spite of 
her great gifts of mind and heart, she seemed, 
much of the time, to lack the power to happily 
and naturally express them. She could be a 
torrent of contradictions all in one breath, and 
would misrepresent herself cruelly in much that 
she said and did. She was so superbly honest, 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 19 

and always thrust the worst foot foremost with 
such conscientious care. 

'^How she did talk sometimes! It was al- 
most impossible to keep pace with her lightning 
thought and wit. 'Do go more slowly, Ameha; 
I want to hear what you are saying.' 'Lucky 
to miss it/ she would flash back, with one of 
her quick smiles. Great depths of tenderness 
were hers, and love of truth, and courage, and 
endurance to fight a good fight. 

''It is well to think of her body resting among 
the Serbians for whom she died. 'I like the 
Serbian peasant. He is simple and honest, and 
loves the right things.' I think those were 
her very words when speaking to me, last 
summer, of choosing to work for them. Her 
always beautiful eyes, that had grown so 
charged with expression, must have brought 
courage and reassurance to many a weary 
sufferer. Her whole being sprang to the chal- 
lenge of Serbia's need. Her great heart had 
found a home." 

After her father's death in 1898, she went 
abroad for a year with her mother and three of 
her sisters. On their return, they lived in 



20 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

Boston for eight years, and returned to Milton 
in the autumn of 1907. 

When Hving in town, she used to take dogs 
from the Animal Rescue League to walk, — a 
small act of kindness, but she had great sym- 
pathy with animals as well as human beings. 

Early in 1903, she took a three months' train- 
ing course in nursing in subacute and chronic 
cases, under Miss Isabel Strong. The practical 
part was given at the bedside, in the Roxbury 
and South Boston districts, most of it among 
the very poor; and a very wide range of cases 
was given this particular class. Among those 
whom she mu'sed were some whom she visited 
and helped to the end of her life. This training 
was of immense value to her later, when she 
was among people who had no medical help 
or advice. 

In 1905 and 1907, she worked in Day Camps 
for tuberculous patients. The first Day Camp 
in America for these was opened in July, 1905, 
on Parker Hill, under the auspices of the Boston 
Association for the Relief and Control of Tuber- 
culosis, in charge of Dr. David Townsend. He 
writes, ^^Miss Tileston came from the Society 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 21 

to the Camp, and continued her visits right 
through the season, which ended in October, 
helping by her kindly interest, ready sympathy, 
and quiet courage, to make the patients happy 
and cheerful; a most important feature in their 
care and treatment. Her kind attentions she 
carried to the homes of the patients, where they 
were appreciated. 

''In the third year of the Camp, from June, 
1907, to February, 1908, at the Mattapan Hos- 
pital, Miss Tileston was of great assistance in 
building and keeping up the morale of the 
Camp, making frequent and regular visits. At 
the Christmas tree, her enthusiasm and efforts 
contributed greatly to the happiness of the 
patients. She brought many articles, sweaters, 
mufflers, toys and books, carried twenty pounds 
of candy, herself, from town, and helped to 
decorate the tree and distribute the gifts. Her 
great sympathy and genuine interest in the wel- 
fare of the patients, especially the children, 
created an atmosphere of rest and cheer which 
aided much in their recuperation." 

She labored to the point of exhaustion to 
relieve the distress caused by the Chelsea Fire 



22 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

in April, 1908. In October of the same year, 
she went to New York, and stayed there for 
five months, working under Miss Jessie Belyea, 
under the direction of Dr. Theodore C. Jane- 
way, in a Special Employment Bureau for the 
Handicapped. She was in the tuberculosis 
section, and one part of her work was to visit 
business offices continually, to try to find em- 
ployment for the men, which was difficult 
to accomplish. The Bureau was discontinued 
after that winter. 

In March, 1912, after the death of her 
youngest sister, Eleanor, she went to New 
Haven, and did Social Service work there in 
the New Haven General Hospital, under Miss 
Belyea, for eight months. Her sister Margaret, 
Mrs. David Linn Edsall, died in the following 
November, and Amelia took charge of her 
household until the spring of 1914. 

When the World War began, in August, 
1914, she felt the urgent call to help to relieve 
the suffering which ensued, and she went in 
October to England, where she worked for a 
month in the Anglo-American Hospital in 
Paignton, Devonshire, doing night-duty, but 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 23 

she found it was abundantly supplied with 
nurses. Then, having been joined by Miss 
Belyea, she did relief work for Belgian refugees 
in London and Paris, but found both places 
overcrowded with workers. They went to 
Italy in January, 1915, and the disastrous 
earthquake, which caused so much distress, 
occurred a week after they reached Rome. 
They wanted to help in the ravaged districts, 
but could not obtain permission to do so. 
While they were in Rome, they were told of 
the great suffering and need in Serbia, where 
typhus fever had been raging for a number of 
weeks. They went there early in February, 
hoping to be of real assistance, but circum- 
stances beyond their control obliged them to 
give up their undertaking, most reluctantly. 

They went to Athens next, having letters to 
Venizelos, through whom they hoped to find 
useful work to do, but his ministry fell the 
very day they landed at the Piraeus. Queen 
Sophia heard of their arrival, and sent for them 
in order to ask about a number of details of 
nursing in America, as she was interested in 
building and runnmg a new hospital in Athens. 



24 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

She wished, also, to send some Greek girls to 
the United States to learn to be nurses. Amelia 
was shocked at the scorn with which she spoke 
of her Greek subjects, while giving the most 
unbounded praise to her beloved Germans. 

Miss Belyea and she went next to India, 
where they had reason to think that they could 
be useful, but they found, when they arrived 
there, that it was not practicable. They re- 
turned to America by way of Java, China, and 
Japan, reaching home in September, 1915. 

That autumn brought overwhelming disaster 
to the Serbian army, and they were driven out 
of their country by the Austrians and Bul- 
garians. Then followed their terrible retreat 
over the Montenegrin and Albanian Mountains, 
and then the transportation of the army and 
of the refugees to Corfu, and other places of 
refuge. 

Amelia was much depressed during that 
winter, 1915-1916, while living at home in 
Brookline, by intense sympathy with the Ser- 
bian sufferings, and the great difficulties in the 
way of going to their aid, and she tried in many 
ways to help them. She collected money for 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 25 

the Serbs in various ways. As she thought 
that many would be willing to give small sums 
— as in the case of the Salvation Army — she 
obtained a license from the city to station men 
with contribution-boxes on the Common, and 
in Harvard Square, for the four weeks before 
Christmas. She got the men from the Way- 
farers^ Lodge, and this helped, also, the needy 
men, more or less handicapped, to whom she 
gave employment. She studied the Serbian 
grammar assiduously, through the long even- 
ings, to prepare herself for usefulness, when the 
opportunity should arrive. 

She sailed for Europe March 3, 1916, and 
spent several months endeavoring to reach a 
point where she could help them. While 
waiting, she nursed for a month at a hospital 
in Florence, and for another month in a hos- 
pital on the road up to Fiesole, during the hot 
weather, when many nurses were away. At 
last, October 30, 1916, she succeeded in reach- 
ing Salonika, and joined Miss Emily Simmonds, 
who had been working for the Serbians from the 
beginning of the war. A few weeks after the 
capture of Monastir by the Serbians on Novem- 



26 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

ber 19, 1916, Miss Simmonds and she went to 
a dressing station at the front for two months. 
After this, they gave rehef to many hundred 
refugees at Vodena for a number of weeks. 
While there, Ameha started a canteen for 
Serbian troops returning to the front from the 
hospital, and, about the middle of May, went 
to Vladova, where she established another, 
and, from that time on, she continued this 
kind of work. 

She came home for two months in the spring 
of 1919, largely for the purpose of arousing 
fresh interest in Serbia. It was her first visit 
to America since March, 1916; it was not a 
period of rest, but of constant activity and 
fatigue. 

She sailed for Europe July 10, and on her 
arrival joined Miss Simmonds for two months 
in taking charge of a camp at Avala, ten miles 
from Belgrade, for four hundred poor children. 
After it closed on the first of October, she 
started a large canteen in Belgrade, with Miss 
Simmonds 's help, for the demobilized soldiers 
returning to their homes. She intended to 
carry it on till April, when the need would 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 27 

probably be over, and then to return home, but 
she died of pneumonia, on Sunday, February 
22, 1920. 

From Charlotte Wiggin to Mary W. Tileston. 

Ameeican Mission, Veles, Serbia, 

June 30, 1920. 

My dear Mrs. Tileston: Thank you very 
much for your letter of May 10th. Indeed I 
should have liked to be able to attend the 
service in King's Chapel. 

You asked me to tell you what I could of 
Miss Tileston's life out there. I first knew her 
last August, when she and Miss Simmonds 
were running the Children's Fresh Air Camp, 
started by the British, at Avala. There were 
a dozen or fifteen big tents on a sunny hillside, 
with room for about four hundred children. 
Children were sent out in batches, several 
hundred at a time, from the Belgrade public 
schools, to spend a fortnight in the country, 
after their four years shut up in the city. She 
had charge of the clothing supplies, of the 
children's mess tents, and of our mess, in addi- 
tion to which she found countless ways of 



28 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

occupying herself, and of being of use to dif- 
ferent individuals. 

After the Avala camp closed in October, she 
and Miss Simmonds went to Belgrade, and 
when I next heard of them (characteristically, 
Miss Tileston was writing on behalf of a home- 
less little boy she had befriended), they were 
running a soldiers^ canteen near the station at 
Belgrade, for the benefit of the troops who were 
constantly coming and going through the city. 
When I came up to Belgrade in January, Miss 
Tileston was running this alone, and she seemed 
to have countless beneficiaries besides the 
soldiers. Besides what she did in the canteen, 
and in her own quarters, where people were 
coming constantly to her for help, she was 
getting up at four each day to start the fire for 
making the great can of tea, which she had her 
man carry over to the station for distribution 
to the wretched soldiers going off on the early 
military train. Besides the tea, she carried 
over cigarettes, socks, gloves, or whatever else 
she had been able to secure, to give to the 
poorest and neediest among that needy crowd. 

I have so many vivid pictures of your daugh- 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 29 

ter that I wish very much I could set them 
down for you to see as vividly : — bending over 
bundles of children's clothes on a steep hillside 
at Avala, the fierce sun beating down on her 
as she stood, calm and unruffled, the centre of a 
mob of eager little girls, just going to the bath- 
ing-tent for Saturday baths, and each intent 
on having exactly the right and the prettiest 
garment from the piles of new clothes before 
them: managing and supplementing the in- 
efficient women helpers in the dining-paviUons, 
or hurrying down the hillside to test the cocoa, 
or to hurry up the soldier cooks in the field- 
kitchen, where the children's food was pre- 
pared: bending over the stove in our kitchen 
(when old Babba proved good for nothing but 
dish-washing. Miss Tileston donned an apron, 
opened a cook-book, and did wonders in feed- 
ing the six or eight people composing the mess) : 
graciously presiding at the table in our mess- 
tent, joint hostess with Miss Simmonds to all 
sorts and conditions of men, — English officers 
and N.C.O.'s, Serbian officers and men, foreign 
relief workers seeking aid and advice, conva- 
lescents from Belgrade in need of a change of 



30 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

air, Serbian government officials — all sorts of 
people came and went in a never-ending stream, 
and all received a sympathetic welcome from 
Miss Tileston — as well as much help. 

In the winter-time at Belgrade, in her little 
apartment near the raihoad station, on the 
second floor of the abandoned hotel which the 
government had turned into tenements for the 
poor and needy, I found her still giving with 
both hands — downstairs in her canteen, where 
soldiers on their way to and from trains found 
hot tea and a clean, warm room to sit in, and at 
night a place to sleep in — or upstairs, in her 
little kitchen, receiving people all day long, 
giving them of her stores of material comforts, 
woollen mufflers, socks, cigarettes, tea, food, 
children's clothing, whatever she was able to 
secure from any source — and giving always 
even more largely of her unfailing stores of 
sympathy and large-minded understanding. 
She must have been a godsend to the people 
in the house through that hard winter, as well 
as to numberless broken-down soldiers, sick 
or maimed, on their way back to civil life, 
whom she was always at special pains to help. 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 31 

I shall never forget the aspect of three of the 
people I saw in the apartment — a dishevelled, 
hysterical woman in great distress of mind, 
coming in for the comfort of receiving a word of 
sympathy: a white-faced ravenous little boy, 
from the next apartment, to whom part of the 
luncheon pudding went as a matter of course: 
an old, consumptive soldier, thinly dressed in 
a torn uniform, and without an overcoat, 
going away cheered and comforted, not so 
much by the cigarettes in his pocket, or by 
the broad muffler carefully arranged over his 
chest, as by the kind hands that had tucked in 
the cigarettes, and arranged the muffler. I 
shall not soon forget, either, the look of con- 
tentment on Miss Tileston's own face, as she 
told me about the Christmas party she had 
been able to give for the forty children in the 
house, with new clothes, and even shoes, I 
think, for them all, in consequence of which 
all the children I saw in the building were sub- 
stantially dressed in stout, heavy clothes. 

The last picture I have of her is also the most 
vivid — the station platform dimly lighted by 
a couple of lamps, crowded with indescribably 



32 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

shabby, tired soldiers in the chill of a raw 
January morning, and Miss Tileston, lantern 
in hand, standing beside her soldier, superin- 
tending the distribution of tea to the men from 
the great can which she herself had started 
heating that morning at four; the tea ex- 
hausted, she came forward to the car reserved 
for invalids, to give them each a couple of cigar- 
ettes. I was struck again that morning as I 
had been so often before by the extent to which 
she always managed to give something of her- 
self to everybody whom she helped in any way. 
When one is doing relief work day by day, it is 
always possible, of course, to be gracious, but 
to treat each person as an individual^ to give 
to each a good measure of warm sympathy and 
understanding, is not at all easy, and I have 
never seen anybody who always seemed able 
to do this to such an extent as Miss Tileston; 
the soldiers, especially, she treated with a mix- 
ture of graciousness and camaraderie that was 
wonderfully attractive, and that won instant 
response and confidence from them, and seemed, 
too, to give real significance to the pretty name 
they gave us there, ^^Sestra,'' ^^ Sister." But 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 33 

whether it be as ^'Sestra," or as '^Gospodgitsa 
Amelia," that they think of her out there, the 
remembrance of her and of her kindly help- 
fulness will endure among them for a very 
long time to come, of that I feel certain. 

For myself, I am beyond words glad to have 
known her, and to have had that month with 
her at Avala. I not only grew to love and 
admire her very deeply for what she did and 
the way she did it, but besides everything else 
she was such a wonderful companion — her 
humor, her delicious reminiscences of things 
and people, her bigness, her whole-heartedness, 
and her sincerity combined to make a very 
dehghtful whole. I cannot tell you what a 
deep sense of personal loss I have felt, nor how 
much poorer a place the world suddenly seemed 
when I heard of her death. 

Miss Emily Simmonds wrote on June 27th, 
1920: '^Amelia came to me at Salonika in 
October, 1916, and helped me for some weeks, 
as a volunteer, getting Red Cross supplies out 
of the Salonika Customs into our storehouse 
for distribution to the refugees of Monastir, 



34 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

when it should fall. While waiting for this, 
we went up to the front, by request of the 
Medical Chief of the Serbian Army, and worked 
at the First Field Hospital of the Moravska 
Division. She stayed there until March, 1917, 
while I went up to Brod, about eighteen miles 
distant, to look after the children who were in 
the re-occupied territory, as I knew the lan- 
guage. In March we were asked by the Red 
Cross to start a camp for the refugees from 
Monastir at Vodena. We got our supplies up 
from the Red Cross Magazine at Salonika, by 
train, and had about five hundred old men, 
women, and children to feed, clothe, and house. 
We did this all alone, with the help of some 
Serbs, until May, 1917. We then had the idea 
of opening a kind of rest station for the soldiers 
on their way to the front. I got her the sup- 
plies for several months ahead, left her some 
money which I had in hand for special work, 
wherever it might be needed, and got her 
started, and then came home for three months, 
as I had already been out two and a half years. 
She carried on this canteen at Vladova for 
nearly a year, with two soldiers who had been 




< 

z, 
m 
Q 
o 
;> 

< 

en 

m 

o 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 35 

with me for a long time before going to her. I 
had had them officially attached to her, and 
they were thoroughly reliable. Their names 
were Jovan Mitrovitch and Milerad Gligoro- 
vitch, whom we called Cheecha.^ 

^'As the route to the front then changed, she 
closed this canteen in February, 1918, and 
opened another at once at Vertekop, at the 
Stalne Logor, which was the official military 
station where soldiers spent the night, on their 
way from the different hospitals back to the 
fighting line, which was then seventy kilo- 
meters ^ distant from there. They had to walk 
all this distance, after spending the previous 
twenty-four hours in the train from Salonika, 
where all the base hospitals were stationed. 
Here they received only their ration of bread, 
so Amelia at once got permission to buy sup- 
plies at the army supply depot, and cooked a 
hot meal for the men at night, and gave them 
tea and cigarettes in the morning when they 
left. Also, she obtained a supply of quinine 

1 Cheecha is a word of kindliness or affection, — meaning 
"Uncle," — given to old soldiers. 

2 A kilometer is about five-eighths of a mile. Seventy 
kilometers are about forty-four miles. 



36 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

from Salonika, and gave it to the men, half of 
whom were suffering from the tropical malaria, 
which was everywhere in Macedonia, and they 
could not get any quinine until they reached 
their own dressing station. She carried this 
on till October, 1918, when came the big 
offensive into Serbia. 

'^In the meantime, she was asked by the 
Honorable Mrs. Haverfield, and Miss Sandes, 
to co-operate with them, as they had collected 
a good deal of money in England to open other 
canteens for Serbian soldiers. She left Milerad 
Gligorovitch in charge at Vertekop with two 
other soldiers, and went up to Petalini to the 
First Serbian Army, with Jovan Mitrovitch, 
and opened a canteen there for the Moravska 
Division, and another for the Dunavska Divi- 
sion, with supplies sent out by the Sandes- 
Haverfield outfit. This was in February, 1918. 
She ran these until April, when Miss MacGlade, 
a friend of Miss Sandes, came out and took 
charge. She then went to the Second Serbian 
Army at Gosturian, and opened a canteen for 
the Timotchka Division, and one at Subotska 
for the Vardarska Division; and whenever the 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 37 

Army moved, or wherever there was the great- 
est need, she opened a canteen. These she ran 
until October, 1918, as well as the one at Verte- 
kop. Jovan was with her all the time, and 
Milerad in charge at Vertekop, until October, 
1918, when he rejoined her at Subotska. 

^^When the great offensive came in October, 
1918, she closed the three canteens, and ac- 
companied the Second Army into Serbia, and, 
at Skoplye, opened another large canteen for 
the men of both Armies. The weather was 
very cold, and her help was very much ap- 
preciated at this hard time. She also got sup- 
plies for the wounded men who were left behind 
in the hospital, absolutely destitute. She got 
milk, cocoa, sugar, and so forth, on an auto- 
mobile, but the road was so bad that it all had 
to be transferred to ox-carts, and she, herself, 
walked. 

^^It was here, too, that she cared for two 
hundred Italian prisoners, who had been cap- 
tured by the Bulgars, but were now free, and 
in a pitiable state, with no one to look after 
them. She bought bread for them, which saved 
the lives of many of them, at a time when every- 



38 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 

thing was so disorganized that there seemed no 
one but her to do these much needed things. 

''From Skoplye, she accompanied the Second 
Army as far as Charchak, where, in November, 
1918, she opened another canteen for the sol- 
diers, and there again she helped the wounded 
who had been left behind in the local hospital, 
many of whom had contracted Spanish in- 
fluenza, which was then raging, as well as 
suffering from their wounds. In fact, the whole 
town had it very badly, but she did not take it. 
It was here, too, that she helped the local 
orphanage of sixty-five children, who were in 
a very bad condition. 

''In January, 1919, she joined me in Belgrade, 
and spent two weeks resting, as she was suffer- 
ing from malaria. I persuaded her to go home, 
which she promised to do after closing the 
canteen at Charchak. She went home in 
April and returned late in July, and helped me 
run a children's camp at Avala until October. 
Then I helped her to open and start her canteen 
in Belgrade, opposite the station. Svetozar was 
our chief dependence in this, and he had charge 
of it during the weeks after her death, until it 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 39 

was closed. I joined up with the Red Cross in 
January, 1920, as there was not then enough 
work for both of us, and she promised to be 
ready to go home by the first of April, as we 
had decided that, when the demobilization was 
over, there would be no further need of can- 
teens. The demobihzation was finished in 
March, so she saw her work through. 

^^She was the pioneer in canteen work for 
the Serbs. The Sandes-Haverfield canteens 
were the only others. We never had a Y. M. 
C. A., and the various Red Cross units confined 
themselves wholly to hospital and refugee work. 
She worked alone, using money of her own and 
that which was contributed by friends and 
relatives. She was not connected with the 
Serbian Red Cross, but was with and under the 
Serbian Army, without pay, the same as my- 
self, as a volunteer for any work there might be 
to do in their jurisdiction. We had honorary 
rank as officers, that is, we drew officers' rations 
and quarters and were treated just the same as 
themselves. She had a military funeral, and 
was buried with full honors." 



LETTERS OF 
AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 
1915-1920 



The following letters were written hastily 
and briefly, sometimes in pencil, and hardly 
legible, but the simple story has an interest of 
its own. The long letters, one about her visit 
to Serbia early in 1915, and the letter called 
*' District Visiting in Macedonia," were written 
to a friend, to be read to people interested in 
Serbia. Miss Emily Simmonds told Amelia, 
one of the last times she talked with her, that, 
when she returned to America, she ought to 
write an account of her experiences, as she was 
the only American woman in the Balkans who 
had lived with and for the Serbs, and Ameha 
said that she would do so. Therefore, it seems 
right to give these records, imperfect and frag- 
mentary though they are. A number of her 
letters were probably lost in submarine dis- 
asters, and irregular mails, so that there are 
many gaps in the story. 



1915 

To Marion W. Ahhot. 

NiSH, Servia,* February 18, 1915. 

Dear Marion: You may be interested to 
know how things are here, where we have 
come in consequence of the urgent appeal of 
the Servian MiUtary Attache in Rome, who 
begged us, with tears in his eyes, to go to Servia, 
as he said the soldiers were dying for want of 
proper care. 

We came over on the boat with Sir Ralph 
Paget, who has been Ambassador to Servia, and 
who came out to do relief work, and to be near 
his wife. She has run a hospital in Uskub, 
working very hard ever since the beginning of 
the war. They are both tremendously admired 
and trusted by the Servians. 

Servia is about as big as New York State, and 
Salonika, the Greek port, is a hundred and 
seventy-five miles from Nish, the temporary 
capital. Owing to the train being greatly over- 

*She says "Servia" and "Servians" until she reaches 
Macedonia, Nov. 2, 1916, and after that it is always "Serbia" 
and "Serbians." 



44 LETTERS OF [1915 

loaded, we took twenty-four hours to make the 
trip. It is the only way to reach Russia from 
the south, and the train was packed with Rus- 
sians going home. As there was neither light 
nor heat, and everything had just been washed 
with carbolic, in a futile effort to kill the insects 
which carry typhus, we were most uncomfort- 
able. Typhus is raging all over Servia. Out 
of the sixty thousand Austrian prisoners [who 
brought the disease there] they say that twenty 
thousand have already died. 

We saw the most pitiful wrecks of Servian 
soldiers at the railway stations. They looked 
like hving skeletons, for there is no commis- 
sariat, and they have to find food where they 
can. It was a very cold day, with snow, and 
a bitter wind. The soldiers mostly had no hats 
or overcoats, a bit of sacking did duty for both. 
Of course, they had no mufflers or mittens. 
Generally, they were without shoes or stockings; 
pieces of rags were used instead. I had been 
seeing the well-clad, and almost overfed, English 
and French soldiers, and the contrast was one 
of the most heart-breaking things that I have 
ever seen. 



1915] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 45 

We stopped at Ghevgelia for two hours, and 
had a long talk with Dr. Donnelly, one of the 
American Red Cross Unit there. He said that 
they had a most trying time, endeavoring to 
clean up, to clear of insects, and so forth, the 
old tobacco factory, which was their chief hos- 
pital. There was no running water. Belgrade 
is about the only place that has that, and the 
wells were polluted. I asked if the Servians 
made as wonderful recoveries as the English 
soldiers. He replied that, on the contrary, the 
mortahty was very high, as they were so 
thoroughly exhausted by cold and hunger that 
they succumbed very easily. He said that they 
made ideal patients, as they were absolutely un- 
complaining, patient, and touchingly grateful. 
Dr. Donnelly had typhus a few weeks later, and 
has died. 

Nish is most fearfully crowded with refugees, 
soldiers, government officials, and so forth, and 
there are a hundred and twenty thousand people 
in it instead of the usual eighteen thousand. 
Every hotel is crammed to the doors, and it is 
very hard to get a lodging anywhere. We spent 
several hours going from house to house where 



46 LETTERS OF [1915 

they had been known to take lodgers. At last, 
we fortunately got a room in the house of a nice 
peasant family, next to the American Consul. 
The King^s nephew, the Ambassador to Turkey, 
had lodged where we were, and we had his 
room. He returned unexpectedly, and we were 
about to be turned out into a much smaller 
room, but he very kindly said that he would 
take the small room instead. We take our 
meals in the best restaurant in Nish. It's a 
very primitive place, and is used as barracks for 
the soldiers at night. The place is packed with 
soldiers and officers, the only other women being 
two or three Servians, but we are never bothered 
in any way. We were able to go out at any hour 
with perfect safety, and met with the greatest 
courtesy everywhere. 

The Servians are a very thrifty, industrious, 
and sober people. I have seen no drinking 
since I came. They are also most democratic, 
officers and men being on the friendliest of 
terms. I was told that if an officer was shot, 
the soldiers would at once dash out and bring 
him in. They are the bravest soldiers in 
Europe. They know that they are fighting for 



1915] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 47 

their homes and their families, and die rather 
than surrender. 

The American Consul was also acting Consul 
for Germany and Austria, and we were able to 
help distribute relief to some of the Austrian 
prisoners. They were allowed to go freely 
about the streets, and I have often seen Servian 
women give money to them. 

The head of the Red Cross, Colonel Subo- 
ditch, took us over his head-quarters. They 
have a big staff of volunteer workers, who keep 
all the accounts, answer letters about the 
prisoners, send information if they die, and so 
forth. He told us that, in the morning, there 
had been only eight cents in the exchequer. 
He introduced a very nice boy of twelve as a 
veteran collector of war rehef funds, as he had 
collected in three wars! His father had been 
killed, and his mother was dead, so Colonel 
Suboditch, who had just lost his only child, 
from typhus, was taking care of him. Colonel 
Suboditch was most kind, and helped us in 
every way in aiding the sick prisoners. 

Food is getting scarce, and prices are very 
high, so that we see many people who look 



48 LETTERS OF [1915 

more than half starved. They are overcome 
with gratitude if they are given anything, and 
can hardly thank one without tears. I was 
trying to encourage some one about the typhus 
situation, and said that I was sure that, as soon 
as America knew the dire need, she would send 
help to Servia. He exclaimed, '^But America 
has done so much already ! We cannot ask her 
to do any more!'^ 

The condition of the sick is most pitiable, as 
there are not half buildings enough to house 
them properly. Many have no beds, but lie 
on straw, packed like sardines. They have no 
clean Hnen, as they have had no change of 
underwear in six months. There aren't half 
enough doctors, as so many have died, and they 
haven't adequate nourishment. Some of the 
so-called '^hospitals" are like Dante's Inferno j 
as a result of the lack of all medical necessities. 

There are very few carriages, and ox-carts 
are the usual mode of conveyance. The roads 
are, almost all, very bad. We frequently saw 
an ox-cart goiQg slowly along the muddy road, 
a peasant woman walkiag beside it, while inside, 
lying on straw, would be her husband, dying of 



1915] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 49 

typhus, on his way to the hospital. The cart 
has no springs, and as the jolting must be very- 
trying under any circumstances, to a sick person 
it must be positive agony. 

As typhus is spread by insects, it is very hard 
to guard against it. The doctors have been 
very brave, volunteering to go to hospitals, 
when they knew that they were almost certain 
to die. The mortality is from sixty to eighty 
per cent. There have been many heroic efforts 
to help, one of the bravest being that of an 
English woman doctor, a Dr. Ross. She came 
from Persia, having heard of the epidemic, and 
had charge of a big barn '^ hospital," with two 
thousand patients, and no one to help her, 
except when the peasant women came in now 
and then. She struggled bravely for two 
weeks, and then fell ill with typhus and died — 
a martyr of the rarest type. 

Another very sad case was of two young 
American doctors who were in Valjevo, the most 
infected place of all, where the horses had not 
been buried since the last battle there, weeks 
before. One of them fell ill with the milder 
type of recurring typhus, and, when he was re- 



50 LETTERS [1915 

covering, the other got the most virulent erup- 
tive sort. The convalescent took care of his 
friend for three days and nights, and then, 
being exhausted, fell asleep. He awoke to find 
his friend lying dead on the floor, as, when he 
arose in delirium, his heart gave out, and he 
died instantly. Save for the help of the Aus- 
trian prisoners, and a few peasant women, they 
had worked quite unaided. 

One must admire the Servians greatly, for 
their patriotism, courage, patience and industry, 
but one loves them for their simplicity, their 
gratitude, and open-hearted kindness. They 
have been fighting for nearly three years, and 
are almost bankrupt. Could you help me in 
getting aid for them? They need everything, 
clothing, blankets, woollen ^'comforts" for the 
soldiers, condensed milk for the sick and the 
babies, all the necessities of life. They have 
fought a wonderful fight, and we, of our abun- 
dance, ought to help the little nation which is 
aiding our cause by fighting against the tyranny 
of militarism. 

Most sincerely yours, 

Amelia Peabody Tileston 



1916 

[Amelia sailed for Europe early in March, 
1916. Miss Emily Simmonds, a Red Cross 
Nurse, who had worked for the rehef of Serbia 
since the autimm of 1914, wrote to her, asking 
her to join her in Corfu or Serbia. She was 
delayed for months by many obstacles, but 
succeeded in reaching her at last.] 

To Marion W. Abbot 

Rome, March 23. 

I have waited till I had something definite 
to say before writing. I expect to get off for 
Corfu in a few days, via Marseilles. The Ser- 
vian soldiers are there, while men, women, 
and children are in Corsica. I have run from 
Embassy to Embassy for information, and, at 
last, hope it will be decided properly. As for 
needs, for the present there is plenty of money 
in hand here to get supplies for all the refugees. 
If, or when, the Austrians allow us to go into 
Servia to feed them, there will be most tremen- 



52 LETTERS OF [1916 

dous need of money, and so forth. I have asked 
about my getting in, but it is considered im- 
possible. If I find that Corsica is well taken 
care of, I shall make a desperate effort to reach 
Servia itself. I pine to open that trunk of sup- 
plies, and begin real work! 

To Marion W. Ahhot 

Florence, June 1. 

After hunting Servians for weeks, I am tem- 
porarily at the American hospital here. I have 
applied for permission to get in to Servia, but 
I think that the answer will be ''No.'' I hear 
that there are no helpers needed in Corsica, as 
English Quakers are doing that work, but I 
shall write to find out. It is impossible to get 
information of any kind except on the spot — 
and the world has so many spots! 

I was able to give the clothes and the mufflers, 
and so forth, to refugees in Switzerland, and 
some to those in Rome. The rest of the things 
I am holding in hopes of getting in touch with 
the neediest Servians. Shall I give them to 
Italians if I can't get Servians? 



1916] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 53 

To Helen T, Chickering 

Florence, June 6, 1916. 

I am, at present, at the American Hospital in 
Florence. There are a hundred and twenty- 
beds in a ^transformed'' villa, with a lovely 
garden. I live at a pension next door, where 
there are two other workers, one American, 
and the other an English girl. As I am on 
night-duty, I see no one except in my one night 
off duty. The Italian soldiers are dear boys, 
full of fun and politeness and gratitude. I am 
waiting to get an answer from Vienna, as to 
whether I can go to Servia. I was told before 
that it would probably be a month before I had 
a reply, and, as I expected to be able to work in 
Corfu, I couldn't waste a month in Berne. I 
think the month that I have agreed to stay will 
be my only one here. 

To Marion W. Ahhot 

Florence, August 8. 

I was very glad to hear from you, but I'm 
sorry that you are tired. Don't over-do, for 
any cause. You, yourself, are the best of 



54 LETTERS OF [1916 

causes — and effects! There is still the possi- 
bility that I may go to Salonika, in which case 
the trunk will care for Servians — and the Ser- 
vians for it! Otherwise, I shall gladden the 
Italians with its contents. I am now at an 
Italian hospital, as they were terribly short of 
nurses through the hot weather. They are all 
sick, not wounded, and consequently not so in- 
teresting to the volunteer nurse. A Servian has 
just come who was taken prisoner by the Aus- 
trians, and then re-taken by the Itahans. He 
speaks only Servian, so my slight knowledge of 
it has been useful. I told him to-day that the 
Allies were advancing into Servia, and his joy 
was pathetic. Every one is very good to him, 
as his situation is so forlorn, and he is very 
grateful. 

I congratulate you on your engineering a 
really serious work for the Allies, without ap- 
pearing yourself. 

It has been very hot, but it's better now, and 
the showers are saving the vineyards. The 
Itahans are very good to their prisoners, giving 
them more than they do to their own soldiers. 
I'm sure that the war will soon be over. 



1916] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 55 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Rome, October 15. 

On Wednesday, I received a cable from the 
Red Cross nurse, Miss Simmonds, telling me to 
come immediately to Athens. Red tape and 
lack of transportation are delaying me, but I 
hope to be off this week. As she told me that, 
when Servia was re-entered by the Allies, there 
would be a lot to do, distributing suppHes, and 
so forth, I imagine this will be my work. I am 
delighted at the prospect of at last getting some 
real work, where I can use my own judgment. 
But I'm very impatient to begin, and the cable 
was eight days coming, so 'immediately" will 
be rather slow. It's lovely weather here, like 
October in America, only warmer in the middle 
of the day. I shall probably stay several 
months in Athens, or way stations, if the work 
is important. Otherwise, I shall not stay long. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Rome, October 19. 

I expect to get off to-morrow, and to sail on 
Monday. For three days I've done nothing 
but haunt Consulates. I made a pair of 



56 LETTERS OF [1916 

wristers while I waited at the French Consulate. 
I'm anxious to get off, as this hanging about and 
uncertainty are very trying. Ill write as soon 
as I land. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Salonika, October 30. (Post-card.) 

I arrived safely yesterday, two days behind 
time. Don't know yet just what I shall do, as 
there are rumors that Miss Simmonds is lost on 
boat sunk by submarine. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Salonika, November 2. 

Here I am safe and sound, with Miss Sim- 
monds, after months of trying to join her. 
She has arrived safely, the boat following hers 
having been sunk. We shall be here about a 
week, to get some freight from the Red Cross 
collected, and put in the store-house, and so 
forth. She has been asked by the Serbians to 
help with the wounded, the only woman whom 
they will have, and I am to be her assistant. 
It is a wonderful opportunity for me, as at last 
I shall really have hard work to do. 



1916] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 57 

We have a Serbian servant, whom she has had 
for the last year, and who, having been a tailor, 
has made over one of her khaki suits for me. 
I'm getting two pairs of big boots, and that's 
about all I need. 

The trunk that Marion Abbot packed for me 
has, at last, been of use, and is going to be of the 
greatest assistance in helping out with things 
we can't get here. I shall probably stay four 
or five months, as less would be of no use. 
Don't worry if you don't hear often, as the mails 
are most irregular. 

To Marion TF. Ahhot 

Salonika, November 11. 
At last, after months of trying to get here, 
and working in hospitals in Italy meanwhile, I 
am in touch with work for Serbians. The 
American Consul in Athens telegraphed for me 
to come out and join Miss Simmonds, a Red 
Cross nurse, whose letter in the Red Cross 
Magazine for April you may have read. I ar- 
rived safely, after just missing a submarine by 
three-quarters of an hour, thanks to wireless 
warnings. The boat after mine was torpedoed. 



58 LETTERS OF [1916 

and a hundred and twenty people drowned. 
Miss Simmonds has been asked by the Serbian 
officials to go to the front, with me as her assist- 
ant. She is the only woman whom they will 
allow to go there, because she has done such 
wonderful work for two years for the Serbians 
that they worship her, and have unbounded 
confidence in her capabilities. She has received 
four decorations from Serbia. 

We are starting in a few days, as soon as 
some Red Cross supplies can be stored, sorted, 
and so forth. It is getting very cold, the 
snow already being quite deep, so all warm 
comforts for the men would be most welcome. 

Salonika is a most interesting place now, and, 
if one had nothing to do, one could spend 
weeks just watching the people pass, and 
never tire of the ever-varying panorama. The 
old Turkish parts of the town are really fasci- 
nating, and Salonika itself is most beautifully 
situated, directly opposite Mount Olympus. I 
wish that I might tell you all the things that I 
have heard, but war talk is quite forbidden. 
When Serbia is opened up by the Allies, there 
will be endless supphes needed. Just at pres- 




EMILY SIMMONDS 



19161 AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 59 

ent, warm things for the troops are the most 
necessary articles. That monstrous trunk, after 
behaving Uke the Wandering Jew, has turned 
out to be the Good Samaritan that I always 
knew that it was. 

[ Private.] 

Dearest Marion: By the way, don't tell the 
family that I'm actually at the front, as I'm 
afraid they might worry. I've merely said to 
them, "to care for the Serbian wounded." 

There are some American newspaper men out 
here, so I imagine you will soon be getting very 
interesting accounts of the situation. You see, 
they know what the censor passes — and I 
don't. 

I'm trying to learn Serbian, and also to buy 
some warm clothes to keep from freezing. I 
expect to get beautifully thin with it all. 

To Mary TF. Tileston 

Salonika, November 12. 

We have been waiting for trucks to transport 
the Red Cross suppUes to a warehouse before 
we leave. We hope we can have trucks to- 



60 LETTERS OF [1916 

morrow — if so, we shall be off immediately up 
country, to help with the wounded. I am very 
tired of waiting, and pine to be off. IVe been 
able to get all the warm things that I need, and 
look forward to being under canvas, after the 
horrid hotel. My Serbian is improving, and I 
have got a Serbian-English dictionary, just 
made by a (naturalized) Englishman. I'm not 
studying Greek at present, as I don't need it. 
French, Italian, Spanish, and English are suffi- 
cient here. German I refuse to speak any 
more. I'm having a coat lined with sheepskin 
for five dollars. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

November 22. 

We are all overjoyed at the fall of Monastir 
and all that it means. I am now trying to help 
get transport for food for that city, the Bulgars 
having looted it before leaving. If we only had 
now the automobiles that are coming later! 
Miss Simmonds has just gone for two days to 
see a wounded friend, an Englishwoman, who 
has been fighting in the Serbian ranks. Now 
that Serbia is opened, there is endless need of 



1916] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 61 

money and of food supplies to be sent from 
America. There is but little flour anywhere in 
Europe, so America must send all she can spare. 
I bought four thousand cigarettes yesterday, 
and gave them to a thousand Serbians who 
were just leaving. The poor things don't have 
many luxuries, and were delighted to receive 
four cigarettes apiece. We shall be off directly 
Miss Simmonds returns, as naturally there are 
many wounded. 

The Consul and his wife are most kind. I 
am having tea there to-day. As he has all the 
Austrian, German, Turkish, and Bulgarian 
affairs, as well as American, he is much over- 
worked. 

I hope you don't mind my staying longer 
over here, but I know that I can be of a good 
deal of use, and every one counts just now, 
especially as submarines make coming here a 
great uncertainty. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Salonika, December 1. 

We have been busy seeing about releasing 
stuff from the custom-house, and are anxiously 



62 LETTERS OF [1916 

waiting the ship bringing provisions from Amer- 
ica. It is much needed, for flour isn't too plenti- 
ful. We have had endless rain, but the last 
few days have been beautiful. Why any one 
believed Constantine would ever be friendly to 
the Allies, I don't know! I hope the blockade 
of Greece will help matters, as they have been 
sending food to Germany. They are very short 
of provisions in Athens. 

We are with a Polish lady ^ who has taken an 
old harem, and lets a few Red Cross people have 
rooms in it, the money going to help Poland. I 
have had one lot of letters in two months, and 
I fear that many of mine to you have been sunk. 

I wish people wouldn't send out small shoes 
to peasants. Big, heavy boots are the only 
kind wanted; and people send out suits, but no 
blouses to go with them. There is a lot of need 
in Salonika itself. I've given away all I can 
spare of my own things; and at last I've been 
able to give away the bandages, sponges, and 
other things, that Marion Abbot collected for 
me. 

1 See pp. 120 and 189. 



1916] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 63 

To Edith Eustis 

Salonika, December 22. 

Owing to boats going down, and so forth, I Ve 
had one letter from you in three months ! And 
two from Mamma! Remember, however, if 
you don't get letters, that I am always O.K. 
I've not even had a cold since I came here. If 
anything happened here, we could put on yash- 
maks, and pretend to be Turks, so no German 
would dare interfere. 

A fund has been started with fifteen thousand 
dollars to work in the Monastir district, and 
two men have come out to be here for all sup- 
plies. Miss Simmonds and I are to work with 
them, making a unit of four. The need will be 
enormous when the country really opens up, so 
get people to give all the money they can. We 
are to supply food, the English clothing and 
hospital supplies, so don't let people send 
clothes. 

How are the kiddies? I wish I could see 
them for Christmas, but a few months more 
will see me at home. The work here is most 
important, so I feel justified in staying. 



64 LETTERS OF [1916 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Salonika, December 22. 

It has been very warm lately, which is good 
for the poor refugees. We are dining at Christ- 
mas at the American Consul's, who has a big 
party of Americans there. The day after, we 
go up country to a Serbian hospital to work 
until our Red Cross supplies, which have al- 
ready started, arrive in Salonika. I hope to 
Heaven they won't be submarined. Owing to 
not having had a Red Cross unit here for some 
time, a lot of supplies which were sent out six- 
teen months ago are still in the Customs, and 
it's a lot of trouble, owing to red tape, to get 
them out and prepared for use. As my motto 
in life is ^' Hurry ! " I am impatient of the delay. 
I've just seen the Serbian Colonel who, as mili- 
tary attach^ in Rome, induced us to go to 
Serbia two years ago. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

December 28. 

We are up here on the way to Monastir, at a 
Serbian ambulance. We are quite comfortable 
in tents, although to-day it has turned quite 



1916] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 65 

cold after warm weather. We had far too 
much Christmas eating [in Salonika], with 
dinner at an English camp on Christmas Eve, 
dinner at mid-day with Russian Poles, tea with 
a Serbian, and dinner at the American Consul's. 
This must leave to be carried down to Salonika 
by some one just going, so good-bye. 



1917 
To Mary W. Tileston 

January 2. 

It is very nice to be really doing something 
for the Serbs. I have got a lot of cigarettes, 
and have much pleasure in giving them to every 
one — prisoners included. There is a Serbian 
refugee here, a French Sister, a very nice English 
woman who does canteen work (feeding), and 
Miss Simmonds and I, — five women! We are 
surrounded by mountains, and the sunsets are 
gorgeous. It is a dressing-station. The sol- 
diers stay a night, and then go on to more per- 
manent hospitals. I am getting practice in 
Serbian at last, and can get along fairly well in it. 

Sunday is the Serbian Christmas, and we shall 
celebrate as well as we can. I am very hopeful 
of the war being over by summer, and Germany 
well beaten. 

To Mary TT. Tileston 

January 9. 

I flew the other day in an aeroplane — rather 
a joke, as I never wanted to. It was quite nice. 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 67 

The nights are cold here, but the days lovely, 
quite warm, though we are surrounded by 
mountains. We are quite near Monastir, and 
see the troops going by. I give cigarettes to all 
whom I can. The Serbs are much pleased 
thereby, poor dears — they certainly need every 
little comfort they can get. We shall begin 
feeding the children in the villages in a few days, 
with English stuff. Ours ought to be out soon, 
if nothing has happened to it. Nothing much 
happens. The wounded come in one day, and 
are taken to base hospitals the next, so one 
doesn't know them well. 

To Edith Eustis 

January 9. 

I think you would like life here. Living in a 
tent, even in January, and up two thousand 
feet, with a stove can be quite comfortable. 
My Serbian improves slowly, as the Major in 
charge here is learning English, and will have 
nothing else spoken except some French. We 
are near Monastir, and see many troops going 
by. We get some Russians as well as Serbs, 
and see Bulgarian and German prisoners. In 



68 LETTERS OF [1917 

spite of my hatred of the Boches, I give them 
cigarettes, not as many as to the Serbs, but 
some. The Bulgar and German troops have 
looted everything as they retreat, and so the 
need of provisions is great. I hope America 
will give on a very large scale, for much will be 
needed, food principally, and automobiles to 
distribute supplies. There are many things I 
should Hke to say about affairs out here, but 
naturally I can't. The Serbs are so grateful, 
poor dears, and call me the ''Dobra Sestra" or 
'^Good Sister," because I give them cigarettes. 
Miss Simmonds goes up to-morrow to a village 
to run a soup-kitchen for the children in it. We 
shall do the same in another village in a few 
days, as our sick and wounded are not now 
serious cases. It is lovely country, with snow- 
covered mountains, and now a full moon. We 
are wondering what Tino will be up to next. 
He ought to be fried in oil ! 

To Wilder Tileston 

January 20. 

I'm with a Serbian Ambulance, '^somewhere 
in Macedonia." We get about a hundred and 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 69 

fifty new patients a day; most of them have to 
go to base hospitals the next morning. There 
is a French doctor, a Serbian ditto, a Major 
doctor conunanding (Serbian), a French nurse, 
and an Enghsh canteen worker, the Honorable 
Mrs. Massey. A lot of French, Italian, Rus- 
sian, and English troops are constantly arriv- 
ing, so I think the Boches will be unpleasantly 
surprised later on. The Bulgarians are sur- 
rendering for nothing at all, and the Germans 
who come here are all in very poor condition, 
underfed, badly clothed, and no fight left in 
them. All they want to know is when the war 
will be over and they can go home. Of course, 
I am bitter against Germans, but the down and 
out ones are very pathetic. The Serbs are 
very grateful and patient, and consequently 
nice to be with. 

I have been giving out clothing with Miss 
Simmonds to a hundred children, refugees. 
They were half-naked, and in a pitiful condi- 
tion. She is giving them two meals a day, and, 
when our supplies come, I shall join her and 
the two other Red Cross workers (men), who 
are now in Salonika. I met the Serbian Field 



70 LETTERS OF [1917 

Marshal the other day, and found him charm- 
ing — very nice, and absolutely simple, like 
almost all the Serbs. I am giving out cigarettes, 
purchased by myself, and thereby becoming 
popular! I only wish that I had more mufflers 
and socks, as some of the men need them much. 
I expect to stay here till April, if the work goes 
well. If much needed, I might stay longer, 
but I think by that time the place will be full 
of Americans, and I really only want to go 
where I am needed. 

To Edith Eustis 

January 24. 

Yesterday about twenty letters arrived, the 
first for a month, with some from you, written 
in October! The views here are really wonder- 
ful, with snow-covered mountains very near. 
The Army Headquarters come to-day, ten 
minutes away from us, so we shall hear a band^ 
and so forth. Yesterday I gave out American 
Red Cross clothing to ninety-four children, 
refugees, almost naked, and shivering pitifully. 
Our supplies should be here soon, and then I 
go with Miss Simmonds and the two men 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 71 

American Red Cross workers to distribute civil- 
ian relief. 

My Serbian isn't very fluent, but it's very 
useful. I have to speak French a lot, much 
to my annoyance. 

The German prisoners are pathetic, badly 
clothed, and badly nourished — no fighting 
spirit at all left in them. You know how I 
hate them, but I gave one my own scarf, as 
he had no coat! However, the Kaiser would 
meet with no mercy from me. 

It's very hard to write letters, and hard to 
get them off. The last three days have been 
cold, before that, wonderfully comfortable. 

To Marion TF. Abbot 

January 30. 

I'm hving in a tent in Macedonia, working in 
a Serbian ambulance. We are surrounded by 
snow mountains, gorgeous views, and much 
mud. By dint of a stove in each tent we keep 
fairly warm, but washing is, I assure you, no 
great treat. The Serbian soldiers are very nice, 
most patient, brave, uncomplaining, and grate- 
ful. I give out many cigarettes, and only wish 



72 LETTERS OF [1917 

I had more mufflers and socks to give them, for 
the winds are bitterly cold. The Bulgarian 
prisoners are in pretty good physical condi- 
tion, though they are tired of the war. One 
walked over thirty miles to surrender. The 
Germans are a pathetic sight, very thin, and 
with worn-out clothing. Things are going very 
well here, with troops pouring in, and, a little 
later, we expect great success. I am never- 
endingly grateful for that trunk. Everything 
in it has been of the greatest use, and I daily 
send wireless thanks to the kind people who 
gave the things. 

It is interesting to see the different types of 
soldiers. We get mostly Serbians and Rus- 
sians, with a few Germans and Bulgarians, and 
a very few Frenchmen, as a French hospital is 
near by. As Army Headquarters are near by, 
we have a constant stream of visitors going 
through. I helped Miss Simmonds, (who has 
done such fine work out here for two years), 
give out clothing to a hundred refugee children 
yesterday. They were a pitiful sight, shivering 
in their one thin covering, and almost blue with 
cold. 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 73 

There is an English canteen worker here who 
is a charming, capable, and amusing woman. 
She also has a very sweet temper, which, I 
regret to say, is rare in the Balkans. 

I am slowly congeaUng while I write, so, with 
renewed thanks for the angel trunk, 1^11 end 
this scrawl. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

February 3. 

It has rained or snowed for days, and is most 
awfully muddy. I keep busy, and think that 
I make the men more comfortable. One I 
saved by making special things for him to tempt 
him to eat. I expect, in about a fortnight, to 
start relief work, as our supplies should be here 
by then. Miss Simmonds is already working, 
but, as I had requested to work in a hospital, I 
am keeping on here. Things are expected to 
go on very well out here soon, so don't be down- 
hearted. The French nurse has just left, so I 
am alone here. Just now, there are only about 
a hundred and thirty patients, usually two hun- 
dred. I have to share my tent with visiting 
women going through, which really is a bore, 



74 LETTERS OF [1917 

and IVe had Dutch, Serbian, and to-night 
Enghsh! The snow here only falls to melt, 
which is a great comfort. I am hm-rying to 
catch the post, so, with love to all. 111 stop. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

February 15. 

It has been quite cold for a week, with snow, 
and mud, and rain. I went to Brod one day to 
see Miss Simmonds feed her hundred and fifty 
children refugees, whom she has clothed with 
stuff from America. Of course, the great news 
is America's coming in. Things go well out 
here. The Germans are being taken to other 
fronts, and the Bulgarians are in a bad way, 
with not enough food, rifles, or ammunition. 

I am going to tea with an Itahan Captain 
near by, but I am grieved because, like most 
Italians, he prefers talking French to Italian. 

As the canteen worker, Mrs. Massey, has 
gone to Salonika for her automobile kitchen, 
which I am sure will never survive these roads, 
I am running her show as well as my own. 
But it's nothing compared to my work in 
Florence; and every day I expect to hear that 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 75 

our supplies have come, and to start relief work. 

I suppose America is all excitement over the 
war. I do hope she has some patent device 
for finishing off submarines, as, of course, our 
army won^t be needed. 

An English woman spent a night here, and 
used nearly all my soap because it was nicer 
than hers. We were roused at midnight to 
feed a Comtesse de — and thirty refugee chil- 
dren from Monastir. They had been coming 
at nine that morning. At twelve, we got a 
telegram saying they would come at eight next 
morning, and at twelve, midnight, they came, 
and expected us to hand them hot cocoa im- 
mediately! I am rapidly congealing. How is 
every one? Love to all. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

February 25. 

IVe just been to Salonika to get the Red 
Cross things that were to have been sent up 
three weeks ago. I went down in the Italian 
Post auto, two hundred kilometers in eight 
hours, with two hours out for stops, over a 
bad road hah the way. I rushed around like 



76 LETTERS OF [1917 

mad the next day, got my passport renewed, 
and so forth, and started back on the train that 
night. It took me twenty-three hours! I 
hadn't time to buy things to eat, but the Rus- 
sian soldiers in my compartment gave me a 
Httle cognac, a piece of bread, and a sardine, 
which kept me ahve till dinner. There were 
four Russians and two Serbians in my compart- 
ment, and they were most kind and thought- 
ful of my comfort, sleeping in a bunch to 
leave room for me to stretch out. IVe given 
out all the things to-day, and wish I had more. 
On Tuesday I leave to go to Vodena,^ where 
there are a hundred and seventy refugees from 
Monastir, and five hundred more coming on 
Wednesday, with more to follow. We hope to 
have also a resting-tent, with hot drinks, for 
Serbian troops passing through. Miss Sim- 
monds has had so much experience in dealing 
with large numbers of refugees that she does it 
very easily. I'm very sorry to leave my 
soldiers, but I hope to see them again. 

I wish Roger were out here to drive us about, 
as we have to depend on passing camions till 

1 Vod'ena. 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 77 

our cars arrive. So far, nothing has come that 
was cabled for in November. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

VoDENA, March 6. 

IVe been here a week now, and there is very 
Httle to do. There are only two hundred refu- 
gees; the five hundred promised us haven't 
materialized. It's largely a question of trans- 
portation. Fourteen automobiles sent from 
America were sunk by a submarine, and the con- 
signment cabled for in November has just ar- 
rived, minus all the automobiles requested. 
With no means of transport, we can do very little. 

This is a charming little town, with swiftly 
running streams all through it. It's on a big 
hill, and the water runs off in a waterfall. We 
have taken an old monastery in the valley 
below for some of the refugee families, the rest 
live in the town. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

VoDENA, April 28. 

Dr. Ryan has come out to be in charge of all 
relief work. We have over a thousand refugees, 



78 LETTERS OF [1917 

several hundred of them Jews. We really have 
looked after them well, for we have only had 
two cases of pneumonia, started before they got 
here, and both recovering. We have three 
houses for Jews and a tent, and a tent for Tzi- 
ganies,^ and two houses for Christians, besides 
several hundred Turks and others scattered 
about in different houses. I've really done a 
lot up here, and only wish that we could have 
got into Serbia, to work among the real Ser- 
bians. 

IVe been very busy, working eleven hours a 
day. I started a canteen the other day with a 
hundred dollars of Cousin Susy's money, and 
have given tea and cigarettes to all Serbian 
soldiers going to the front. The other day, we 
had fourteen hundred, and gave them onions as 
well — raw ones, which they love. I am much 
pleased at its going so well. I pay a woman a 
drachma^ a day to work there, and five 
drachmas a week rent, and get on nicely. 

Yesterday we went to the English hospital 
to help, as they were short of nurses, and we 

1 Gipsies. 

2 Equal to about a franc, or twenty cents, normally. 




< 

Q 
o 
> 

< 

O 
Pi 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 79 

were really useful. We have given a tent and 
twenty beds for our refugees, and the doctors 
and nurses look after them. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Salonika, May 16. 

Your letters come, but are a long time on the 
way. I am down here for a day, getting sup- 
plies for a canteen at Vladova,^ the next village 
to Vodena, where the troops stop for a night 
on their way to the front. With Cousin Susy's 
money I am starting this by myself. With 
that money I can work for a while, and, as Miss 
Simmonds is returning to America for three 
months, she will make an appeal for more money 
for the work. I shall give tea, coffee, and ciga- 
rettes, and perhaps beans, to the Serbs going to 
the front, and also to the Italians, as the latter 
will give me transport for my supplies. I have 
two Serbs to do the cooking, and have one tent 
for myself, a kitchen, small tents for my men, 
and a very big tent for the soldiers. It is most 
agreeable work, and very useful, as nothing is 
done for the Serbs on their way up. My can- 

1 Vlad'ova. 



80 LETTERS OF [1917 

teen in Vodena has been very successful, so an- 
other will be welcomed. We went up to the 
front the other day to see the Serbian Field 
Marshal, but we had to come back by train part 
way, nine hours to go eighteen miles, and arrived 
at three in the morning. Travelling, except by 
motor, is a horrible task. 

To Edith Eustis 

Salonika., May 18. 

I am starting a canteen in Vladova, and I am 
looking forward very much to the work, as it is 
very useful, and not being done by others. The 
poor old Serbs are so tired by the long march up, 
and they have to carry heavy knapsacks, while 
other armies have theirs sent by automobile. 

Salonika is full as usual, and quite hot. It is 
very tantaUzing to see all the nice things to buy 
— but later I hope to buy something, when the 
war is over. 

We fitted up a maternity tent before we left 
Vodena, and secured a very good doctor, so I 
feel that things are in good shape to leave. I 
leave in a few minutes to go back, — so good- 
bye. 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 81 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vladova, June 1. 

I am settled here in a really lovely spot. I 
have a tent for myself under a nut-tree, my 
soldiers' tent under a fig and grape-vine, so I 
am quite biblical. I have two Serbs to work for 
me — soldiers — and things ought to go well. 
I am about six feet above a brook, and twenty 
above the high road, so no one can call it 
isolated. Miss Simmonds left last week for 
America, and she will ask for money for me to 
give all the passing troops refreshment, as the 
tea and sugar are only for the Serbs, and, at the 
present price of sugar, I couldn't afford to buy 
for every one. Why doesn't America send over 
a lot of stuff here? Apparently, this end of the 
war is forgotten. It is very hard to get letters 
mailed from here. As it is only an hour's walk 
to (name blotted out by censor), I am there very 
often, and see the refugees. 

To Edith Eustis 

June 14. 

I hope you're not frying in Washington. It's 
hot here, but the nights aren't. I have about a 



82 LETTERS OF [1917 

hundred soldiers a day, and, besides giving 
them tea and cigarettes, I give them medicine, 
bandages, and so forth, if they are ill. I have 
my two Serbian soldier orderlies, one of whom 
does the cooking, and does very well, though I 
confess a httle American bread wouldn't be un- 
welcome. I can sit by my tent-door under the 
shade of my nut-tree by a fast running brook, 
and watch the traffic on the Monastir road 
twenty feet below. There are Algerians, Ital- 
ians, and Serbs here, and I am the only person 
doing any canteen work. It will seem very 
queer to speak English again with everybody. 

To Helen T. Chickering 

Vladova, June 14. 

I was very glad to hear from you yesterday, 
and to know that you are all well. I have left 
the refugee work at Vodena, and gone to the 
next village, four miles away, to do canteen 
work for passing Serbian troops. I get about a 
hundred men a day, and, if they are ill, give 
them medicine and care. I have a sick man 
left behind this morning, suffering with dysen- 
tery, for which I have no medicine, and I am 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 83 

going to get him to the English hospital at 
Vodena. 

I have a small tent for myself, and a big tent 
for the men, and two Serbian soldiers to do the 
work, so I'm very well settled, and I'm all on my 
own. I am so glad to be able to say that I am 
an Ally now. Before, it really was horrid. 
And I hope great things from America. I 
want to see a big American success. 

A soldier gave me two young magpies last 
week; one has escaped, but the other is the 
curse of my hfe, as it yells for food every half 
hour. 

I am so pleased that, at last, Constantine is 
down and out. It's about time. I wish that 
there were no censor, there are so many things 
I want to say. My Serbians start at five in the 
morning, to go on, as it is cooler, so I get up at 
about four, which is awful, as I never can get 
enough sleep before that. But a nap partly 
makes up for lost time. Here there are Algeri- 
ans, Itahans, and Serbs, so I get practice in 
three languages, and mix them all up nicely. I 
had a nice puppy, but a passing soldier adopted 
him, at least I suppose so. 



84 LETTERS OF [1917 

We get almost daily showers, an unheard-of 
thing at this season, due according to me, to the 
firing of the cannon. It makes things much 
cooler, if it is sometimes a nuisance. 

How is your ''First Aid'' coming on? I have 
great hopes of a speedy finish to the war, and 
trust in a few months to be leaving for America. 
I can't bear to go, when I can do something for 
the poor, old, worn-out and broken-down Serbs. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vladova, June 15. 

It's a great relief to have that silly old Con- 
stantine out of the way. I have a variety of 
people here, Greek priests, Algerian soldiers, 
Italians, Serbian soldiers and officers. My 
magpie squawks when hungry — its only ac- 
complishment. As the troops go away at any- 
where from half -past four to six in the morning, 
early rising is a necessity. Fortunately, my 
Serbian cook does not mind rising even before 
the magpie. 

I am besieged by old refugee friends whenever 
I go to Vodena, and it takes hours to see them 
all. As I am not working for them now, I can 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 85 

do nothing for them but hsten to complaints 
and requests. I suppose it reheves their minds. 
It has a singularly irritating effect on mine. 

I expect my walnuts to be ripe in a month, 
and to be really surfeited with nuts, which I 
always adore. I have no ink, and I fear my 
letters are almost illegible. 

The silk-worms are beginning to make 
cocoons, and every one is busy getting the last 
mulberry leaves for their parting gorge. It's a 
great industry here — the only one, I think. 
The people are primitive to a painful degree, in 
spite of the fact that a lot of the men have been 
to America and returned; four hundred young 
men have gone from Vodena alone! The 
women all wear their hair down in braids, which 
I shall have to do soon, as I have only two hair- 
pins left. 

I look over flourishing fruit-trees through the 
valley to distant mountains, a view that is a 
really lovely one. The Serbs are really wonder- 
ful, so patient, and uncomplaining, and brave. 
They ought to be petted and cared for always to 
make up for what they suffered. 

I am pining for a big American success, and a 



86 LETTERS [1917 

lot of soldiers out here, though none except 
seasoned troops should come out before Octo- 
ber; and they'll need barrels of quinine, as every- 
one except myself has malaria. 



DISTRICT VISITING IN 
MACEDONIA 

Vladova is a pretty little village just half- 
way between Salonika and Monastir. There 
are about sixty houses, very dirty but pictur- 
esque, and all through the place flow streams of 
water, with a quite large waterfall at the end of 
the village. The houses are all alike, with a 
room downstairs for the pigs, chickens, and so 
forth; then, up a ladder-like stairway, are three 
or four living-rooms. Macedonian famihes pre- 
fer to all sleep in one room, on the floor, with 
only a thin rug under them. 

In the silk-worm season, the other two or 
three rooms are given up to them, large tables 
covered with mulberry leaves filling up every 
corner. And a loathsome-looking sight they 
are, first small and wriggly, and then fat and 
portly, as they get near the cocoon stage. 

I was stationed in Vladova with a '^comfort 
station'' for Serbian soldiers going to the front, 
giving them tea and cigarettes, medicine when 



88 LETTERS OF [1917 

they needed it, and milk and eggs to the weak 
ones, and looking after their bUstered, tired 
feet. But, as they came in the late afternoon 
and left in the very early morning, I had most 
of the day free, and, in an evil hour, took in a 
sick orphan boy, and cured him. Henceforth, 
I was doomed; the village flocked to me for 
medical advice and medicine. I also had a big 
tin of dried milk, which added to my popularity, 
and my patients dwindled as the milk began to 
give out. My treatment was simple — castor 
oil, hot apphcations when necessary, and a milk 
diet. It was surprising how quickly most of 
them responded to this — a diet of melons, bad 
bread, grapes, and so forth, their usual fare, not 
being good for the ill. But they would give me 
presents, which I didn't want. I received some 
wonderful stockings; only, in Macedonia, the 
women wear socks, as long trousers are the 
fashion under their full petticoats, so they 
wouldn't do to wear in America. Also eggs 
were — not literally — showered upon me. As 
they cost six cents apiece, this was a really 
handsome gift. 

The most difficult thing to combat was the 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 89 

language, as it is a blend of Bulgarian, Serbian, 
and Greek, and I only spoke primitive Serbian. 
Sometimes I used to take one of my soldiers to 
translate for me, but it was of doubtful benefit, 
as he would give out health directions of his 
own. ''Of course you have malaria," he would 
say, ''you eat plums and then drink cold water, 
you ought to know better." I was touched by 
their blind faith in my knowledge, but their 
stupidity and dirtiness did annoy me. As for 
their ideas of diet, they were really no worse 
than the poor of our own cities, who feed six 
months' old babies on anything, and one of 
whom, at that tender age, was said to be "a 
devil for cheese." 

Malaria was rampant, and at least half the 
village was ill at one time, with that and other 
fevers. It was very hot, and the people wore 
on their heads either a handkerchief only, or 
nothing, and they all had headaches. For- 
tunately, after a time, one gets immune to most 
insect bites, so the many lurking in the houses 
only walked over me without further damage. 

We could hear the thunder of the guns on the 
front twenty miles away, and the aeroplanes 



90 LETTERS OF [1917 

used to fly over us, but they didn't drop bombs, 
as it was such a small village, and also the sym- 
pathies of every one in it were with the Bul- 
garians. A lot of the villagers were soldiers in 
the Bulgarian army. In spite of its small size, 
a hundred young men had gone to America 
from Vladova. There were two or three who 
had returned just before the war, and they were 
counting the days till they could go back again. 
But, in spite of their admiration for America, 
they lived in the uncomfortable and unhealthy 
fashion of the other villagers. Women are more 
or less beasts of burden in Macedonia, and the 
poor animals are shamefully treated. The 
English soldiers were hot on the subject, and 
always stopped cruelty when they saw it, but 
in the East they cannot understand our point 
of view, and merely think us individually mad. 
The popular delusion about peasants being 
strong isn't true in this part of the Balkans. No 
one looks really well, the children are all pale 
and anaemic, the women worn and thin, and 
every one looks years older than his real age. 
Patients lying on the floor with all their clothes 
on are not as easy to treat as some, but it is sur- 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 91 

prising how soon one gets used to such incon- 
veniences. What most irritated me was that I 
couldn't get them to eat nourishing things; they 
only liked melons and highly seasoned food, and 
they usually didn't take the medicine left for 
them. All of them were strangely patient, not 
complaining of the pain or discomfort. I have 
never seen anything like their passion for castor 
oil; they would beg for it almost with tears. 
But the children used to shriek at the sight of 
my thermometer, and cry determinedly till I 
went away. 

My own establishment was on a little hill, 
just twenty feet up from the Monastir road, 
with a lovely view, and a brook running madly 
by. My tent was under a walnut-tree, and I 
thus learned the staining qualities of walnut 
juice. The big tent for the soldiers was a few 
feet away, with an American flag in front of it. 
I was sure that every aeroplane would be so 
annoyed at seeing an American flag that they 
would bomb it, but I suppose bombs cost too 
much to be wasted on a mere irritant. Every 
one said that my camp was the prettiest place 
in Macedonia. 



92 LETTERS OF [1917 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Vladova, June 24. 

I received five letters of yours together, the 
latest being May 3 — one of January^s! IVe 
been down for two days to Salonique, getting 
sugar. Salonique is horrid; very hot and dusty, 
and everything very dear. I arrived at ten last 
night, having taken nine hours to go about 
seventy-five miles. 

The Serbians continue to go by, so I feel that 
I am not useless, and, when there are a few 
Italians or French, I give coffee to them, as, 
with Cousin Susy^s money, I can do it. 

The American Consul and his wife, Mr. and 
Mrs. Kehl, have been most kind, and always 
invite me to their house when I am in Salonique. 
The Greek situation seems really better, but I 
don't trust any of the Kaiser's relatives. I wish 
America would send a lot of soldiers out here. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vladova, July 1. 

I am just going down to Salonika to buy some 
cigarettes, as there were none of the sort that I 
need, last week. 

I find many of the Serbians^ feet need atten- 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 93 

tion after their long marching, so I attend to 
those, as well as give any medicine that is 
needed. Altogether, I think that it helps things 
along, or at least Serbians along. It's a lovely 
cool day after two hot ones. I have all kinds 
of people come to me for medicine, and also, 
when they aren't well, I give them eggs and 
milk, and so forth. So, it's really a '^comfort 
station," as the Italians call it. 

I am taking down a chicken to the Consul's 
wife, as everything is very dear in Salonika. 
Apparently Grecian affairs are really going 
fairly well, for a wonder, and it will help the 
situation out here very much. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vladova, July 13. 
We had a great wind-storm last night, which 
I thought would blow all the tents down, but it 
didn't. I have quite a little stock of medicines 
now, and can treat most of the people who need 
attention. I also can get fresh milk and eggs, 
which are a treat for men who haven't had any 
milk for months, and can't eat their rations. 
Mostly I attend to sore feet, caused by long 
marching in the heat. A lot of the men ought 



94 LETTERS OF [1917 

to be back in hospital, and will be sent back 
about as soon as they reach the front. I do 
hope that America will hurry up with her aero- 
plane raids on Germany — I want to be able to 
boast of what we have done. 

As yesterday was King Peter's ^'day/' I 
went to church in (word blotted out by censor), 
but after standing for half an hour, I ignomin- 
iously sat down on a bench in the court-yard. 

To-morrow, being the fourteenth [Bastille 
Day], I shall give coffee and cigarettes to the 

fifty-eight Frenchmen who are stationed in . 

The nights continue to be cool, and usually, by 
the middle of July, the worst of the heat is 
over. It has been no worse than the heat in 
America, but I believe last year was much 
hotter. I haven't had any letters for some 
time, but I imagine that there are some for 
me now in Salonika. 

To Edith Eustis 

July 27. 

I'm getting to be quite an expert in treating 
feet, and find that my treatment of bhsters — 
prick, iodine, and surgeons' plaster — is that 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 95 

used by the U.S.A. So I feel very clever to 
have evolved it myself. 

The donkeys trot slowly by, laden with wood, 
and so forth, and bullock-wagons crawl along, 
in contrast to some of the automobiles which 
whiz by. I went in an auto the other day, 
driven by a Frenchman who had been Roose- 
velt's chauffeur, and then Taft's. It was a Ford 
car, and wouldn't go up any hill if there was 
more than one person in the car! 

There is a girl in Vodena who lost both legs 
in the big aeroplane raid, and she can tell when 
an aeroplane is coming quicker than any one 
else. I am living in hopes of American raids 
on Berlin. They will stop the war quicker than 
anything. 

To Mary TF. Tileston 

July 27. 

I've just received your letter of May 21. I 
write every week, but often I can't get my letters 
posted, and there aren't always boats. 

I had a soldier left here a few days ago, too 
weak to go on. I tried to get an automobile to 
take him to the hospital, but couldn't. In the 



96 LETTERS OF [1917 

evening, to my horror, his temperature was 
105.5°. I sat up with him all night, gave him 
quinine, and so forth, and his temperature was 
sub-normal next day. But it was an enormous 
reUef to get him at last carried to a hospital, 
where they could find out what the matter was. 

I'm beginning to pine for real food, especially 
hot biscuit, and all kinds of nice bread, for war 
bread just now isn't nice. 

I wish that America could send a hundred 
and fifty thousand men out here to relieve the 
Serbians, as another winter campaign will quite 
finish them. I suppose most people are happier 
dead, but they've had an uncommonly slow and 
painful death, some of them, tortured by false 
hopes and broken promises. 

To Mary TT. Tileston 

Salonika, August 14. 

I've been busy curing a Serbian boy of fifteen 
of — I'm not quite sure what — but he was 
rather ill, 104° temperature, and so forth. He 
is an orphan, and had tended goats for five 
years, being given only bread. He knew only 
part of the alphabet, and is now busily engaged 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 97 

in learning to write. I shall keep him for about 
ten days, and then he will go to school in Vod- 
ena. I confess that I'm not fond of being 
doctor and nurse too, especially when patients 
do as he did. As soon as the fever went down 
a little, he arose in the early morning, and, after 
gathering together his few poor rags in the 
house, where he had Hved, had a good wash at 
the village fountain, with, of course, a nice rise 
in temperature later. But, as another boy 
whom I didn't know about, with just his symp- 
toms, but who had no care, died two days ago, 
he has become more careful. 

Salonika is, as usual, awfully hot, night as 
well as day, and dusty! I dined last night with 
Miss Sandes, the English woman sergeant in 
the Serbian army. I came down on the Sani- 
tary train, which is unpardonably slow and un- 
comfortable. Hours are spent in waits, and the 
heat is appalling. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Vladova, August 25. 

Time goes by, and no chance comes to send 
a letter, but now I can, so I will. I have now 



98 LETTERS OF [1917 

become a medecin malgre moi, as, having cured 
two people, I have to look after others. So far, 
I have been very successful, my medicines being 
castor oil, quinine, and aspirin, with directions 
as to diet, of which they know nothing. I was 
presented with some grapes yesterday, and 
before that with a chicken, by grateful patients. 
I can't say that Macedonians appeal to me 
much, they are so curious, and walk in any- 
where, without asking if they may. 

The weather is, fortunately, getting a little 
cooler, which is good for every one, and should 
diminish the sick rate. I really have the pret- 
tiest spot in Macedonia for my camp. The 
Serbian Minister of War came one day — un- 
fortunately I was in Salonika, — and stayed to 
dinner, and admired my estabhshment very 
much. The boy whom I took in when he was 
ill goes to-day to Vodena, to begin school. He 
really has some flesh on his bones now. 

A long procession of donkeys is going by to 
(Saturday) market day in Vodena, loaded with 
wood and vegetables, to be sold at exorbitant 
prices, as the demand exceeds the supply. I 
am anxiously waiting to hear from Miss Sim- 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 99 

monds as to her plans, and when, or whether, 
she returns. At present, there is a lull in my 
work. 



To Mary W. Tileston 

Salonika, September 29. 

You may have got a letter saying that I am 
in a hospital here with malaria. Don't be 
alarmed, it was only a mild case, and I'm feel- 
ing very well now, with a large appetite, only I 
have to stay here a Uttle longer to be sure not 
to relapse. It's very comfortable here, beauti- 
fully clean, the food very good, and everybody 
most kind, so I couldn't be better off. The 
malaria season is nearly over, so I shan't have 
another attack. People have been very kind 

about coming to see me, and Miss , an 

American, who came out with the hospital that 
we sent, comes every day, and does any errands 
I want done, as she has a car. It is getting 
cooler, and one has two blankets at night. I 
have plenty to read here, so it's really quite a 
holiday. 

I've just had a cable from Miss Simmonds 
from Paris, so I suppose she will be here soon, 



100 LETTERS OF [1917 

and we can work together again. I^m pining 
to know just what we are to do, as she hasn't 
told me yet. Fortunately, my soldiers are well 
trained, so they can carry on the work at Vlad- 
ova for a time without me. 

[This attack of tropical malaria was far more 
serious than her account would indicate. At 
the hospital, they were anxious about her, as it 
affected her heart seriously. They told her 
that it was essential that she should rest for a 
time before going back to her work, or they 
could not answer for the consequences.] 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Paeis, October 20. 

I'm here for a little while to see Mrs. Draper, 
the Red Cross head from New York. It seems 
very cold after Salonika, but IVe got a new 
suit, and keep warm. Paris is packed with 
Americans. The soldiers look very well, but I 
wish that they would begin to help in the war. 
It's awfully nice to get good food again, and the 
butter is a joy. I've not eaten butter for a year, 
and revel in it. 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 101 

I did very well on my trip, as Miss Simmonds 
telegraphed to come to Paris, and I got a hos- 
pital-ship two days after I left the hospital. I 
can't say enough for the care and attention I 
received at the hospital. I am very well, and 
have an enormous appetite, and it's a joy to be 
able to buy all that I need. 

To Arthur Foote 

Paris, October 21. 

I am here for a few weeks, as one of the Red 
Cross heads is coming who wants to see me. 
Also, it was thought a good thing to have a 
change after my malaria. I came up on a 
French hospital-ship, with a Spanish officer on 
board as a preventative for submarines. We 
had very good food, and a tranquil trip. 

There are a lot of American soldiers about, 
and every one agrees that they look very smart 
and well set up, but I want them to begin to 
work, and am impatient for us to begin our 
aviation, and so forth. I pass the '^ Conti- 
nental," and think of the time that we were all 
there together. The hotels are full. I shop 
with joy, for Salonika after the fire is an arid 



102 LETTERS OF [1917 

waste for clothes. It's painful to buy flannels 
when all about you are charming things that 
you long to buy! Certainly Paris seems — 
and is — much nearer home than Macedonia! 
I expect to go back shortly, and it will be much 
nicer then, for the heat is over. Here it is 
chilly, and grey, a relief after five months' sun 
and heat. My malaria is gone, after most in- 
telligent treatment at an Enghsh hospital, 
where every one was kindness itself. 

I wish that I could be with you at Thanks- 
giving. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Paris, November 10. 

I expect to leave here to-morrow, and hope 
to get to Salonika in about a week. There I 
shall thoroughly inform myself whether I can 
continue working through the winter, giving 
soup and beans, instead of tea. If it can't be 
done, I shall probably go to Italy to work. 
France is perfectly filled with Americans, most 
of them waiting for something to do. They 
arrive on every boat, before they are needed, 
and simply sit around for weeks. My advice 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 103 

to people coining over here without absolutely 
knowing what they are to do is — don^t! I 
shall be sorry to leave the land of nice butter, as 
in Macedonia it is bad and scarce. Miss 
Sinunonds will stay on where she is, I suppose, 
for a few months, working at Dr. Lucas's 
Children's Hospital for the Repatriated, at 
Evian-les-Bains. 

Mrs. Draper was to have been in Paris, but 
did not come. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Salonika, November 22. 

I arrived quite safely last night, after a very 
rough and stupid trip. We had the Spanish 
officer on board, and had no submarine adven- 
tures. I am very glad to be back again, as Paris 
is too fuU of Americans to leave any chance to 
work there. The dust is very bad, but that is 
better than the rain in France. I wish America 
would send over some coal, flour, and meat. 
But perhaps it will. I'm just going to the Con- 
sulate to get my letters, which ought to be 
many. 

It's nearly two months since I had any. 



104 LETTERS OF [1917 

To Mary Tf . Tileston 

Vladova, December 2. 

IVe just received two letters, one of August 
29, the other of September 30; the four between 
haven't arrived! 

I am now Uving in a house, as it is warmer for 
the winter. There have been a lot of Serbs 
going through, up to my arrival. Since, there 
has been a lull. If it keeps up, I shall go else- 
where. It's lovely autumn weather, but when 
there is no sun it's cold. The cows, pigs, and 
so forth Hve downstairs, the hens vibrate be- 
tween the two stories. I have two good rooms 
— that is, good for Macedonia — and a place 
for making soup for the passing Serbs. It's 
very hard to get supphes, and I wish America 
would send over flour, sugar, lard or cotton-seed 
oil, beans and rice, as those are all lacking. 
Your bread sounds very nice. When I get 
home, I intend to do nothing but eat for at 
least a week without stopping. Every one is 
feehng better now the heat is over, only it's the 
season for bronchitis, pneumonia, and so forth. 
I have a sleeping-bag and several blankets, and 
manage to keep warm. I wish the war would 
hurry up and be over. 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 105 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vladova, December 8. 

WeVe had lovely weather all the week, only 
a trifle cold, and a lot of soldiers. I've been 
quite busy, as a number of them needed medi- 
cine, and so forth. A lot of them had been sent 
out without blankets, so, one night, I had ten 
old sick ones in my room, and ten in the soldiers' 
room. I give them a soup made of pork, 
onions, and a lot of beans, so they have the 
beans to eat, as well as the soup. The poor 
things are much pleased, as it is the only hot 
meal they get on their way to the front, about 
six days in all. 

I should very much hke, if Miss Simmonds 
could come, and the Red Cross or Serbian 
Rehef would supply funds, to start a canteen 
at one or two of the stations, to give soup to all 
soldiers going to the front. I could get it going 
in a few days and there would be no red tape, 
or money wasted, and I really think it would 
do a lot toward keeping the men from getting 
sick. Travelling for two days in unheated 
box-cars is no joke — and if you have no 
blanket! If I only had a lot of money, I could 
go ahead without waiting for anything. I've 



106 LETTERS OF [1917 

just got a stove, (two dollars), which makes my 
room much warmer than an open fire. 

To Helen T. Chickering 

Vladova, December 26. 

I was very glad to get your nice letter; it 
was months since the last. The only person 
to say ^' Merry Christmas" in Enghsh was an 
Itahan who had been in Cahfornia! But I was 
quite gay on Christmas Eve, as the ItaUans had 
a cinema for the soldiers, and, after it, I went 
to a supper with the French. We had a lot 
to eat, chicken, turkey. Canard a Vagence Wolff, 
and a lot of other nice things. 

Just for a few days, IVe had nothing to do, 
which is always monotonous. I am at my old 
business of doctoring the villagers. Walnuts 
are now my payment — taken under protest. 
What I chiefly lack is sugar, for there are a lot 
of quinces, and I want to make marmalade, of 
which I am passionately fond. 

I am more useful in the cold weather, as now 
I give a thick bean soup, which is the only hot 
food they get, and I'm having some stoves 
made out of petrol tins to make the barracks 



1917] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 107 

tolerable for the night. The Serbian soldier 
gets five dollars a month, and wants to send 
money to his family in Serbia, so, if they had 
'*pay" canteens, they couldn^t use them. 
There ought to be several free canteens at 
stations on the way to the front. 



1918 

To Edith Eustis 

Vladova, January 3. 

I had a very gay New Year, with about 
twenty guests for a coffee- (or rather Tower-of- 
Babel) party, as I had Serbs, Itahans, French, 
EngHsh, and a Russian, three women guests. 
As they all spoke different languages, some 
nothing but their own, it made a fearful mental 
strain. 

One of my soldiers has been ill for a fortnight 
with what I, and one of the three doctors who 
saw him, consider to have been appendicitis. 
I kept him here for ten days, and then took 
him to the hospital at Vodena, where I have 
been daily to carry him milk. He returns to- 
morrow, all right again. 

To-day, IVe lunched at the French Anti-Air- 
craft Station, with the Commandant of Vlad- 
ova. A very good lunch, and both the men 
were amusing and intelhgent. The Comman- 
dant is Inspector of Schools in civil hfe. 

Sugar is the thing we lack most here; civil- 
ians can't get it, and the Greeks don't stop 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 109 

privateering, so they ask two dollars a pound. 
Fortunately, I can buy some at the Serbian 
Magazine. 

My room is gay with yellow and green cheese- 
cloth, shells filled with maidenhair fern, and 
two window-boxes with daisies, primroses and 
cyclamen. As it is my dining-, bed-, and 
sitting-room, and dispensary, it has to be always 
ready for visitors. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vladova, January 8. 

Happy New Year! We have had very little 
snow, and not much cold. For the Serbian 
Christmas, I spent your hundred dollars in 
stoves for the barracks, and treats for the men, 
and money for the poor ones; so, it accom- 
pHshed a lot. I got eight stoves made out of 
gasohne cans. I went out to dinner, and had, 
of course, young roast pig. I much prefer or- 
dinary pork, roasted a la Americaine. As the 
Serbs celebrate three days, the next day I went 
out to dinner at the next village, higher up, 
eighteen kilometers away. 

The small Serb boy whom I took care of in 



110 LETTERS OF [1918 

the summer is now in a Boy Scout school at 
Vodena, and came to see me yesterday. He is 
learning to be a carpenter, and is very healthy 
and happy. There is, as usual, a lot of illness. 
The doctor of the American hospital has been 
ill for a month with rheumatic fever, at Salo- 
nika. They are going to have American nurses 
and a doctor for the refugees at Vodena. It's 
quite time they did, as there is a lot of illness, 
and they are not needed for the army. What 
the army does need is warm clothing, more 
blankets, and some of the hospitals have no 
automobiles. 

It's snowing hard, but my room is really 
warm. Only, I think of the Serbs at the front, 
and don't feel warm. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vladova, January 21. 

The weather is just like late spring, with 
daisies and crocuses blooming on all the hill- 
sides. I am going to start another soup-centre 
about fifteen miles away, where there are more 
soldiers. No one else is feeding the troops with 
hotfthings on their way to the front. I shall 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 111 

stay half the week there, probably, and half 
here, as the necessity arises. I shall have a 
httle hut built for me, which will be very warm 
and convenient. To-morrow, I go to Salonika, 
where I shall have a chance to post this. 

Children here die very easily; out of seven 
or eight, there are usually only two survivors. 

Some people here have just been wolf-hunt- 
ing, as there are a lot in the mountains. I was 
told that five Serbian soldiers have been eaten 
by a big pack of wolves, but I hope the story 
isn't true. 

To Edith Eustis 

Vladova, January 21. 

I do so wish that I had a lot of warm shirts, 
drawers, socks, scarfs, and so forth, to give the 
Serbs. When they leave the hospital, they 
haven't enough. I don't see why America 
can't send enough clothes to equip the Serbs 
properly, direct to the Serbs, as they are fighting 
our battles, poor wretches! 

One of my soldiers had his first letter from 
home in two years, telling him that his wife and 
eight children are all well. The other soldier 



112 LETTERS OF [1918 

had his wife, two children, and mother-in-law 
killed by a bomb. And, of course, they are 
merely samples of what all Serbia has suffered. 
One soldier had lost six brothers, his mother 
was shot by the Austrians, and his young sister 
left behind to suffer a worse fate. And Amer- 
icans talk of being friends with the Boches! 
Wait till our men have been tortured, crucified, 
and so forth, and so forth, and see how for- 
giving we are! 

To Edith Eustis 

Salonika., February 15. 

Miss Sandes, the English woman sergeant in 
the Serbian army, has been raising money in 
England, and has just cabled me some to spend 
immediately in canteen work. She is coming 
out shortly, and I expect that I shall work in 
connection with her. She is very capable, and 
a pleasant companion, and it will mean an en- 
larged field of work, so I'm much pleased. 

They are planning a convalescent camp, and 
want me as directress, but I can't combine it 
with other work, so I don't think that I want 
to do it. They need a lot of camps, as there 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 113 

are thousands of Serbs who need convalescent 
care, and they need endless cases of condensed 
milk, and money to buy cows and hens. I 
still do my medical visiting in Vladova, but 
their bad health is largely the effect of poor 
food and dirt. Some of the rooms are as dark 
and sunless as the tenements in New York. 
I'm very tired and dirty from motoring down, 
so I'll stop, with lots of love to Fred and the 
kiddies and you. 

The children must be darhngs. I hate to 
miss so much of their babyhood, but war isn't 
a good time for Hving one's own hfe as usual. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Salonika, February 15. 

I'm in Salonika for a day, and have acquired 
a sweet puppy to take back with me, to keep 
me company. I expect to go in a few days to 
a place fifteen miles from Vladova, to open 
another comfort station. They are building 
me a hut and a kitchen now. 

We have had a perfect winter, with only 
about two weeks cold, the rest like May. It's 
a fine thing for the refugees, without sufiicient 



114 LETTERS OF [1918 

clothing or fuel. I came down by the ItaUan 
automobile, and am very dusty. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

[Name of town erased by censor] 

February 28. 

I'm now established here, though my place in 
Vladova is still open for whenever it is needed. 
I have a sweet Httle hut, eight feet by eight, 
made of woven boughs, and plastered outside 
with mud. I have a stove, and a window with 
real glass in it, and the puppy, who is charming 
and beloved by all. This isn't nearly such a 
pretty place as Vladova, though there are 
lovely snow-capped mountains in the distance 
at the front. The snow-storm last week was 
very severe, and it's feet deep in places. Here 
I have work, so I am contented. I've put a 
temporary garden, in front of the house, of 
blooming daisies till I can get a real one started, 
and I've got some hens, horrid things, and am 
going to buy an eighty-franc donkey to bring 
the firewood. I shall sell him afterward, so it 
isn't money thrown away, and he'll have a 
happy home for a while, poor thing. 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 115 

Every one is very polite, and makes long 
speeches about my goodness, and so forth, 
which, though tedious, are rather pleasing, nev- 
ertheless. The Serbians are a very grateful race. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

[Name of town erased] March 3. 

I^m here for a day, getting things arranged 
for opening some new canteens for Miss Sandes, 
and arranging for transporting a lot of warm 
woollen clothes for the soldiers at the front. 
As she can't be out till the first of April, I'm 
to get things started and running. I had just 
applied to open a tea place at the station at 
[name erased], as well as my own one at the 
camp. I shall be very, very busy. Espe- 
cially as I have no car till she comes, and have 
to beg rides from any one. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

April 12. 

It's a long time since I wrote, but I've had 
no chance to send letters, as I've been away, 
near the front, getting another soup place 
started, for the English ''Comfort Fund." It 



116 LETTERS OF [1918 

took me a long time to get things going, as 
every one was absurdly slow, and I had to 
wait for permits, and so forth. I also gave 
out about thirty thousand pieces of under- 
clothing, stockings, and other things, sent by 
the Canadian Red Cross. As yet, the auto- 
mobiles haven't arrived, and it's very hard 
getting about. I had to go a hundred kilo- 
meters [about sixty-two milesl. Coming back, 
I walked thirty-seven kilometers [about twenty- 
two milesl, and arrived at a station at half-past 
seven p.m., to find the train had left ten minutes 
before, and I had to wait till one in the morning 
for the next train, and travel all night in a box- 
car that was usually given to horses. 

I am very busy now, for, besides my work 
here, the EngUsh work must be started, and, 
as yet, there is only one other worker, who will 
be in Salonika. Miss Simmonds is to come 
later. It's getting warm now, but last week 
there was a big snow-storm, and it was very 
cold. We need a lot of quinine out here, 
besides sugar, and so forth. My ten hens have 
laid a lot of eggs while I was gone, so I've 
been able to give the sick soldiers a treat. 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 117 

To Edith Eustis 

Vertekop, A'pril 27. 

I'm very busy, as, until Miss Simmonds 
comes, I have to be in several places at once. 
There is one other worker, who is doing the 
official business, sees to supplies, and so forth, 
while I do the practical end. I have my place 
here, and at Vladova, and opened another can- 
teen, for tea, about seventy kilometers [about 
forty-four miles] away. I am opening another, 
about half a kilometer from this last, to look 
after two other divisions. We look after the 
men who do the transport, and those returning 
to the front, about a thousand a day, at the 
new place. When Miss Simmonds arrives, I 
shall start a new canteen near here, and look 
after the three near together. There is to be 
an automobile for me, thank Heaven! if it 
isn't simk. It's impossible to do several places 
without one. We need a lot of quinine, as the 
men are sent from the hospital with none for 
the road; and also we should have socks, as 
many men have to walk a hundred kilometers 
without any, and get very blistered and lame. 
I'm so glad that now there is a regular society 



118 LETTERS OF [1918 

to do this work — before, IVe been the only 
one. It's Enghsh, and not American, but that 
doesn't matter. I hope our soldiers will be 
put with EngHsh ones. I want America to 
know that England is our best and natural 
friend. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Vertekop, April 27. 

I'm so sorry that you don't get my letters. 
I write always, and can't understand why they 
don't come. 

If the war continues till autumn, I will go 
home for a time at least, but I still think by 
August it will be over. Miss Simmonds should 
be out in a few weeks, and then I shan't have 
to work so hard, as another worker, who is 
now seeing about things in Salonika, will go to 
PetaUni, and I shall stay in this part of the 
world. I shall start one more canteen, and be 
able to run three easily, not very far apart, as 
I shall have an automobile to fetch suppHes, 
and get about with. A very nice Enghsh 
General, who has just come out, and looks 
after Serbian welfare, brought me back in his 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 119 

car two days ago; as last time I walked about 
half way, it was a great help. 

I don't suppose you will see Miss Simmonds 
[who was in the United States again]. If I had 
only known when she went, I'd have asked her 
to bring me a pair of boots. I'm still wearing 
the old ones she gave me when she left a year 
ago. I've had them re-soled about seven times, 
at ten or fifteen drachmas a time. It would 
be cheaper to buy new boots, but there aren't 
any good ones here. 

I wish I had a barrel of quinine to give away. 
A lot of soldiers have malaria, and no quinine. 
The Serbian Easter is eight days off, and I've 
got to save eggs for the soldiers. I've tried 
to get some lambs, but I fear with no suc- 
cess. The peasants here are frightful extor- 
tioners, and ask ten times what they ever got 
before. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Vertekop, May 9. 

I celebrated the Serbian Easter by giving the 
men in the camp — only sixteen — eggs, lamb, 
sugar, and cigarettes, the things they wanted 



120 LETTERS OF [1918 

most. I also got eggs for about a hundred and 
fifty others. I came down from Petalini part 
way with another Enghsh General, also nice. 

It's lovely now at Vodena and Vladova — 
but not at Vertekop; iris, columbines, Judas- 
trees, quinces, a kind of broom, and roses, in 
great abundance. Before it gets too hot, it's 
really lovely. I keep very busy, and hope soon, 
with the arrival of an auto, to open another 
canteen. I think that I shall go home in Sep- 
tember, whether the war is over or not, as two 
years here are supposed to be enough without 
a change. 

Where I stay in Salonika, in an old Turkish 
house and lovely garden, is called the ^^ House 
of the Benediction" — the owner is so good to 
the poor.i Also, she is good to me — alto- 
gether, an angel. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

June 4. 

The Sandes-Haverfield Canteens will pay for 
all the new canteens, and I shall run one of 
them, which is near here. 

1 See pp. 62 and 189. 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 121 

A six-foot long snake ate five of the eggs from 
my hens^ nests yesterday, much to my rage. 
The hill behind us has many storks in it, said 
to be after snakes, but I^m sure it's only grass- 
hoppers. The flies are ubiquitous — you would 
hate it. The only place is under a mosquito- 
net. The potatoes in my garden are almost 
ready; I also have tomatoes, cabbages, cucum- 
bers, and paprika. I'm sure that a lot of my 
letters get lost, but I think in time I receive 
almost all of yours. 

To Edith Eustis 

June 4. 

To-day they are building me a summer 
house, as the heat in my hut is intense. I have 
taught my soldier to make a very decent Welsh 
rarebit, which is a pleasant change from per- 
petual greasy stews. He also fries potatoes 
quite decently. There are plenty of wild flow- 
ers, but here it's hard to get wood for cooking — 
also water. 

Sergeant Flora Sandes, who has been in Eng- 
land, raising money for Serbian canteens, has 
just returned, but she goes directly back to the 



122 LETTERS OF [1918 

front. The other worker stays in Salonika to 
await freight, and consequently I've had to do 
everything by myself. Twice IVe had to walk 
thirty-five or thirty-seven kilometers. I also, 
last time, went about two kilometers on a large 
horse, lent me by a fat and perspiring ItaUan 
soldier acquaintance. I managed with his help 
to crawl up on the beast, and he led it. It was 
an awe-inspiring sight, as I had on a very short 
skirt, and sl pocket full of raw eggs — which 
didn't break — and I was carrying a knapsack 
filled largely with onions, and a primus stove. 
Such is fife — for me — in the Balkans. An 
automobile is promised, but, if it isn't lost on 
the way, it may not arrive for months. 

It will cost about twenty-five dollars a month 
for my comfort station at Vladova (the other 
one will be an EngUsh canteen) now that the 
hot weather demands tea and not soup. The 
big canteens of about fifteen hundred a day 
cost about four hundred dollars a month. 

Sergeant Flora Sandes has just been here on 
her way to the front. She is much pleased 
with all I have done. Hurrah! 

I suppose you are at Cataumet, and enjojdng 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 123 

the sea-breezes. Here it is like an American 
July, not at all terrible heat. 

To Helen T. Chickering 

Vladova, June 10. 

I was very glad of your letter a week ago. 
IVe had potatoes from my garden, also cab- 
bage, and thirteen chickens were hatched yes- 
terday. I expect to carry a lot of hens into 
Serbia, as there won't be any there. And yes- 
terday they killed the snake that has been rob- 
bing my hen-roost, so all is comparatively well. 
IVe got to make one more trip to the canteens, 
seventy-five kilometers away, and, as transport 
is problematical, I always dread the journey. 
It is too hot now to give soup, so tea is on in- 
stead, which is much less trouble. 

I wish America would send a lot of shirts to 
the Serbs; theirs are in rags. You have cer- 
tainly done wonders in the amount of dressings 
you have made and sent out. 

I have a most beautiful summer house, made 
mostly of reeds, and with green wreaths round 
the windows and doors, so it looks Uke Christ- 
mas decorations. My hut is too warm to sit 



124 LETTERS OF [1918 

in during the day. I am very tired of Mace- 
donia, but I do hate to leave before the war is 
over. However, if it is to last another year. 111 
go home for a bit. 

I am next to some aerodromes, so the aero- 
planes are constantly skimming overhead, and 
having once, much against my inclination, been 
up in one, I am only too glad to stay on the 
groimd. I now eat, and almost enjoy, the sour 
milk that one gets all through the Balkans. 
It's the Metchnikoff kind, supposed to make 
one Hve to be a hundred, — not that I want 
that! 

The spiders, beetles and grasshoppers are all 
of great size, and look very deadly. There are 
also centipedes, which I haven't yet met. 

When I leave, I shall erect a monument to 
beans and cabbage, as they are our two great 
friends. 

To Mary W, Tileston, Jr. 

June 10. 

It's very hot here now, but one tries not to 

walk much through the day, and the nights are 

not yet unbearable. The Serbians need shirts 

and socks, and, I fear, will continue to be with- 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 125 

out them for a long time. Malaria abounds, and 
quinine is the most important want. They give 
forty grains a day for three days, or, in very 
bad cases, sixty, and then thirty for three days. 
It^s astonishing how Httle it affects one. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Salonika, July 7. 

I'm down here for a day or two, and it's hot 
and full of mosquitoes. But this smnmer is far 
better than last year. 

I have just heard that one of my kitchens 
has been shelled out. Fortunately, no one 
there was hurt. But my beautiful boilers, made 
of petrol tins, are surely among the missing — 
and petrol tins are precious. My other place 
I hope to start in a few days. They have been 
two months doing work that should take two 
days. I've just moved to a nicer camp, where 
my new summer house, in which I hve almost 
entirely, is a dehghtfully big place. My puppy 
regards it as his duty to go on watch every 
night with the two soldiers who act as guards, 
and sleeps all day, so we seldom see one another. 
I should Hke a good swim — and a lot to eat 
after it. 



126 LETTERS OF [1918 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Salonika, July 30. 

I'm down here getting a chauffeur for the 
automobile, which has just come. As we are 
very Hmited as to gasoHne, it will require most 
careful planning to go where I need to. It has 
been, and is, very hot, 108° in the shade, when 
there is any! 

You will be interested to learn that the French 
poUce have told me that I have an enemy who 
is continually denouncing me as a spy — the 
latest being that I was going about the Serbian 
fronts with no reasons for being there, and no 
proper papers. As I had all the necessary 
"laisser passers/^ and was there starting can- 
teens, I had no difficulty in proving my good 
faith. I asked the name of my accuser, and 
was told that the secret poHce can reveal names 
to no one. It is like a priest and the confessional. 
In the winter, the Serbians tell me, the French 
poHce asked the Serbian Headquarters for 
particulars concerning me, as I was being de- 
nounced as a spy! 

Red Cross societies cannot do canteen work, 
so we are not under them, but [are now] under 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 127 

a registered society in England, the Sandes- 
Haverfield Comfort Fund. 

As to my coming home, things look so promis- 
ing for a speedy finish to the war, that I shall 
stay on till October, anyway. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

August 14. 

How much did they collect for Serbia on the 
Sunday in June? I'm hoping in a few days to 
hand over the new canteen to an EngUshwoman, 
married to a Serbian, who is to run it. It has 
taken four months to get it going, and I haven't 
yet received the soldiers to work in it. Two 
young Macedonian boys have been lent to me 
temporarily. 

American soldiers certainly seem to be doing 
very well, but I always knew that they would. 

I have just bought a pig, as they are the 
favorite food of the Serbians, and just now are 
daily becoming dearer. I have so httle gasoUne 
that an automobile is almost a mockery. I 
predict a speedy collapse of some of the enemy 
powers, and a consequent finish of the war. 

There are plenty of vegetables now, with 



128 LETTERS OF [1918 

water-melons and musk-melons galore, only the 
Serbians love to make stews of everything. 
Most of the medicines sent out to us from 
England were stolen on the way — much to my 
rage. That's the trouble here [in Macedonia], 
everything is robbed on the trip. Americans 
are ideahstic about the effect of the war on 
people. I can't say that I think any one out 
here is improved by it — quite the reverse. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

September 2. 

[Alluding to a volume of letters, she says] 
My letters would never do to publish, for there 
is nothing in them. 

Owing to a general intrigue, the new canteen 
was shut for a fortnight for want of men to 
work in it, but to-day the men have come, and 
we are again going, with lemonade through the 
heat of the day, and tea early, when it is cool. 
My pig is so pleasant in its ways that I hate the 
thought of killing it. Its favorite amusement 
is chasing my two geese. 

Things look so favorable for a speedy advance 
into Serbia that I shall stay on for a while 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON ^ 129 

longer, as, after all this time, I want the joy of 
getting into Serbia. I think all the Serbians 
will die of broken hearts if we donH succeed, as 
they are confidently counting on going home 
before Christmas. Why couldnH America have 
come in sooner! 

My chauffeur has been in hospital for ten 
days with malaria, but he is now out again, and 
I hope our advance will be in time to save him 
from another attack. This canteen is in a sta- 
tion, so sleep is difficult on account of trains. 
IVe only one bed, so when I sleep in Vertekop, 
I he on a sleeping-bag, which is comfortable, but 
I sometimes think of snakes, as there have been 
some big ones in the camp. It will be awfully 
nice to get into Serbia — if we do! 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Salonika, September 30. 

At last, we're entering Serbia, and I'm so 
glad I didn't leave before. I went to a place 
where the wounded were coming through, and 
slept in the cloisters of a Greek church for two 
nights, till the wounded were sent elsewhere. 
Then I was asked to go in my auto with suppUes 



130 LETTERS OF [1918 

to a place in the mountains, three days after 
the Bulgars had been driven from it. I went 
part way, and then, as the auto couldn^t go on, 
I put my things into carts, and walked twenty 
kilometers,^ over the worst road in the world, 
through gorgeous scenery, range after range of 
mountains and forests everywhere. I found 
eighty-five sick and wounded who had had 
nothing but water for two days. I gave them 
tea and milk, and found a wonderful garden, 
so that we made a most nourishing soup out of 
bully beef and vegetables. They said if I 
hadn't come, they would have died. Another 
ambulance came along, and I left, walking 
thirty kilometers ^ back to my old haunts. It 
was most interesting. I found endless muni- 
tion boxes full, and helmets galore. I also 
found in the Staff Headquarters a flag which 
I carried down, and was taken for a Bulgarian 
by a French soldier! As if a Bulgarian would 
go about with a flag among the Serbians! 

Everything is changed, and IVe closed my 
three canteens, and shall start a fresh one. We 

1 Over twelve miles. 

2 About eighteen miles. 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 131 

are all awfully pleased, and the Serbs have 
been wonderful, going over the most difficult 
territory at the rate of thirty kilometers daily. 
Fortunately, there is no rain, or the roads would 
be impassable. I expect the bottom to drop 
out of this silly old war before two months are 
over. I have endless things to do, so 1^11 say 
good-bye. 

To Edith Eustis 

UsKUB, November 6. 

Many, many thanks for the money. IVe 
bought milk with it, which is most sorely 
needed, and in some cases I think it has really 
saved fives. 

The Germans carried away most of the 
material from here, five-stock, and so forth, 
but didn^t damage the town much. They have 
destroyed the stations and bridges nearly every- 
where, which makes fiving difficult, as the roads 
are dreadful. Further up I am told there is 
more to eat, cheese, eggs, and hens, quite cheap 
and plentiful. Eggs were eighty cents apiece 
when I came; they are now twenty. I brought 
some hens with me, but they haven't laid a 



132 LETTERS OF [1918 

single egg, and I^m eating them, in revenge. 
Yet a little while more, and I hope to be leaving, 
with a peaceful world behind me. The Voyvode 
Mishitch, the Serbian Field Marshal, planned 
the offensive which has really ended the war. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

UsKUB, November 6. 

Don^t worry if you have long intervals be- 
tween letters, as it is very hard for me to mail 
letters now. I came here three weeks ago, and 
opened a canteen. I had great luck in getting 
here with my things, as transport is very hard, 
the roads being nearly impassable. The Ger- 
mans had no rubber tires on their automobiles, 
and that has cut the roads to pieces. They 
destroyed all the bridges and all the railway 
stations and material that they had time to 
destroy, but higher up I believe there is less 
damage. 

The Spanish grippe is raging with a high 
mortaUty. The Serbians have it badly. They 
have done magnificently, going thirty kilo- 
meters a day over most difficult country, and 



1918] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 133 

being ahead of their transport, having gone too 
fast, they have been living on war biscuit. 

This is a very picturesque town, quite 
Turkish, with many minarets. I expect to 
leave here in a few days, as there is more work 
higher up, and things are still plentiful there. 
Here, the Bulgarians skinned the country of 
everything. Shoes cost six hundred dinars ^ a 
pair, eggs were eighty cents apiece, flour three 
dollars a kilo,^ sugar eight dollars a kilo, when 
I came. This is ^'New Serbia,^' otherwise 
Macedonia, and I don't care for Macedonians. 

^ A dinar is normally equal to a franc, about twenty cents. 
2 A kilogram is about two pounds. 



1919 
To Mary TF. Tileston 

Salonika, January 9. 

Dear Mamma : I hope that you haven't wor- 
ried over receiving no letters, but I've been in 
a place where there is no chance to mail letters, 
nor to receive any. I went to Tcharchak six 
weeks ago, and have had a canteen there, but 
there aren't many soldiers, and I shan't stay. 
I am not quite sure whether I shall start for 
home shortly, or stay on a httle longer, as, 
until there is demobihzation, the soldiers are 
sent in every direction, and need help more 
than ever. 

The Austrians were at Tcharchak, and, 
though they drove away all the cattle, took 
the poultry, stripped the hospitals, and de- 
stroyed the electric and water systems, they did 
not burn and kill and torture as the Bulgarians 
have done. One soldier had two of his chil- 
dren put into the house, and burned to death. 
There was another, whose eighty-year old father 
had his eyes put out, and his old mother was 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 135 

beaten to death, to make her give up the money 
which she didn't have, and so forth, and so 
forth. 

The roads are very bad and muddy, and over 
mountain passes, and the gasohne is scarce, so 
transport is almost impossible, as all the oxen 
and horses were taken by the enemy. It has 
been very mild, fortunately. The great needs 
of the people are soap, candles, sugar, shoes and 
stockings, lard, and underclothes. But we 
need, first, many automobiles and much gaso- 
line. 

I hope the family won't have two goes at the 
grippe. It has been very bad here, but I've 
escaped. Both my soldiers have been very ill, 
one with malaria, and one with grippe, for three 
weeks. I am shopping violently for other 
people — fifteen have given me things to buy! 

To Helen T, Chickering 

Salonika, January 9. 

I've been in western Serbia for six weeks, 
and, six weeks before, lower down, with no 
letters or newspapers, so I'm awfully behind 
the times. Tcharchak is a small place, and 



136 LETTERS OF [1919 

was under the Austrians, who, except for arro- 
gance, and driving off the hve-stock, and de- 
stroying the electric and water systems at 
the hospitals, and so forth, behaved fairly 
well. But the Bulgars! They burned villages, 
carrying off everything, and leaving the in- 
habitants to starve and freeze. The Bul- 
garian officers are fearfully arrogant and inso- 
lent, quite intolerable. 

Until there is demobilization, everything for 
the soldiers is needed as much as ever. It has 
been harder since the offensive than before, as 
the roads are awful, gasohne very scarce, and 
all the railroad bridges destroyed. It has 
taken me eight days to come here, a distance 
of perhaps five hundred kilometers! ^ For- 
tunately, it isn^t very cold, for all night in a 
freight-car in winter is no joke. 

To Edith Eustis 

Belgrade, January 30. 

I was awfully pleased to get your letter and 
the photos of the children. They are charming, 
and I'm proud to belong to them. 

1 About three hundred and ten miles. 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 137 

I wish that something could be done about 
transport here, both of soldiers and clothing. 
The soldiers are walking two hundred kilo- 
meters ^ or more, with only bread — and no 
pay _ and no one can get the clothing to the 
people who need it, as the railroads won't be 
ready for six months. There should be a few 
hundreds of Fords, if Fiats can't be got, with a 
ship-load of gasohne, and dozens of spare parts, 
for the roads are terrible. Hundreds of people 
could be saved, who will otherwise die of ex- 
posure, for now the winter has begun. I am 
on a boat on the Danube, in a snow-storm, the 
first of the year, and wondering how I shall get 
back to Tcharchak, as we had difficulty in 
getting through in a Fiat before the snow, and 
it took us over two days to go a hundred and 
fifty kilometers. 2 I found Miss Simmonds 
here. She has been here for a month, running 
one big canteen, and is just going to start two 
others. I think that I may start for home in 
about a month, as she thinks I could raise 
money for Serbs in America. I hate to leave 

1 About a hundred and twenty-five miles. 

2 About ninety miles. 



138 LETTERS OF [1919 

before demobilization, but it is so far off that 
I don't think I can stay till it comes. 

There is no air in the cabin, and too much 
outside, so I am vibrating between the two. 
It will be nice to go home, but I hate to leave 
before the end. 

To Edith Eustis 

Belgrade, April 17. 

You are quite right in thinking that work 
ought to continue, for conditions are almost 
harder than before the armistice. The lack 
of transport has made a fearful situation out 
here, and suppHes haven't been sent in any- 
thing Uke large enough quantities. Practically 
all Serbians need new clothes, besides furniture, 
and so forth, but that mostly in the districts 
which have been under the Bulgars, and hve- 
stock should be sent out at once. 

IVe been up here for a week helping Miss 
Simmonds, on my way home via Fiume, Venice, 
and so forth. There are three canteens, one 
for the soldiers passing through, and the others 
for the soldiers who live in barracks. We are 
giving out clothing, but there isn't nearly 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 139 

enough, and every one is mad for civilian 
relief. When the soldiers are demobiUzed, 
they are civiUans, and, as they deserve more 
help than any one else, I want to continue in 
that Hne. I expect to leave next week to start 
for home. 

[She reached home on Thursday, May 8. 
She was very thin and worn, but still full of 
enthusiasm and intense devotion to the Serbian 
cause.] 

To Marion W. Abbot 

New Haven, May 25. 

I had hard luck in Washington, as I had a 
chill (malaria), first in six months, and, after 
going to the Red Cross (they were all in Eu- 
rope!), was met by a friend who motored me 
to her house, and put me to bed, where I stayed 
till next morning at seven. She motored me 
about, seeing Washington, till half-past seven, 
and I took the eight o'clock train to Philadel- 
phia, and had an interview at the Friends' place, 
20 South 12th Street, with a Mr. Comfort. 
They are wonders, and going out to work, not 
joy-riding, or advertising. 



140 LETTERS OF [1919 

I am going to ask Dr. Morton Prince if he 
would be willing to put an appeal in some medi- 
cal journal, to ask doctors to send one or two 
dollars each to buy medical books and instru- 
ments for the doctors in devastated Serbia. His 
name would give confidence. I want awfully 
for him to start the ^' adopting'^ of Serbian chil- 
dren — so much a year, to be educated in Eng- 
land, where I beheve there are some places for 
a hundred and twenty-five dollars a year, run 
by people who are doing it for the hopeful cases 
among children who are left helpless, without 
support. I'm going home on Tuesday to a 
thousand milHon engagements, including den- 
tist's, but I really think I can get something 
done for Serbia, so I'm feehng very happy. 

To Marion W, Abbot 

Brookline, Mass., June 3. 

I've been given a letter of introduction to the 
Carnegie Peace people, who might consider 
educating students in either forestry, engineer- 
ing, or agriculture. My mind is full of schemes 
and plots, and I'm very happy at finding a hope- 
ful "cause." Third stage t.b.s aren't cheering; 
neither are merely poor people good material. 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 141 

Thank you as always for all your kindness, 
but most of all for being you. 

[She sailed from New York July 10.] 
To Mary W, Tileston 

Naples, July 24. 

I arrived at noon after a comfortable, but not 
interesting trip. The Mediterranean was not at 
all calm. However, I spent much time in my 
state-room, and consequently escaped sea- 
sickness, and also am well rested. Everything 
is very dear, and the want of coal and food|is 
bitterly felt. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Rome, July 27. 

I'm leaving to-night for Trieste, Fiume, and 
Belgrade. It's fairly warm here, but not nearly 
so hot as it was in America. Food is scarce, 
dear, and poor. There is no butter, and the 
bread is very bad, grey, and hard. I don't 
wonder ItaHans are very much depressed, g I 
do think we might do more for Italy. It will 
be very nice to get back among Serbian friends, 
and at work again. 



142 LETTERS OF [1919 

To Mary W. Tileston 

AvALA, August 2. 

I arrived at Belgrade at noon on the 30th — 
not at all bad — twenty days from New York. 
I find that Miss Simmonds is to run a camp for 
three hundred poor children at Avala, ten miles 
from Belgrade, so I have come out and joined 
her. We hope to open in two days. It has 
rained almost all summer, and to-day is pour- 
ing. We have thirty German prisoners to get 
things ready — needless to say they do as httle 
as possible. The camp will only be open for 
about two months, and, after that, I don't 
know what we shall do. I may go in for t.b. 
work among the ex-soldiers, or for work for 
the mutilated soldiers. Every one is doing 
children's work, and I like the soldiers much 
better. 

The Crown Prince is coming out at the end 
of the week to see the place. 

All my things arrived safely, whereas an- 
other woman who came out from England has 
lost all her baggage. 

But most people do not look after their 
things at all. 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 143 

To Edith Eustis 

AvALA, August 15. 

You would love this life, camping out with 
three hundred kids, and more coming. It's a 
fairly pretty rolHng country, and our tents are 
under some trees, where a good breeze keeps us 
cool except in the middle of the day. The Scot- 
tish Women's Hospital have a place next to us, 
so all sick children are at once handed over to 
them. This place is suppHed by the English 
Relief Commission, but as no one bothers to 
send us the things out from Belgrade, Ufe is a 
long struggle to get our supphes. Miss Sim- 
monds and a Miss Tibbets, who is a pleasant 
middle-aged English woman, are running 
the show, and as no other mission has more 
than about fifty children, after months of fus- 
sing, we are proud of really getting something 
done. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

AvALA, August 21. 

It's awfully hot, like the weather in June and 
early July in America, [this year]. We are 
very busy, as there are nearly four hundred 



144 LETTERS OF [1919 

children, with only three of us to run the show. 
We have sixteen soldiers and some Serbian 
women to do the work, but all directing, and 
so forth, is done by us. There are, also, several 
teachers with the children, who are to keep 
them in order. I've been giving out clothes 
lately. Tents are very hot, though mine is open 
at both ends, so I can get a breeze through — 
when there is any. The nights are fairly cool, 
and a few weeks will end it, for it isn't hke 
Macedonia. 

There is, unfortunately, a disease among 
the pigs, like foot-and-mouth disease, and a 
great many are dying of it. We bought a 
Uttle pig the other morning, and he died in the 
evening. 

To Edith Eustis 

AvALA, August 21. 

Our days are very full; they begin at half- 
past six, and end at nine, or so. I go down and 
superintend the children's breakfast, nearly four 
hundred of them; then I dash up, and see that 
our breakfast is O.K., for our old Serbian 
woman is far from intelligent. Then I see who 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 145 

is sick, give out clothes, see about dinner and 
supper, and that the lanterns are lighted, and 
so forth, and so forth, and so forth. It's not 
work that I hke, but I found that I was much 
needed. When everything is running beauti- 
fully, I shall probably go into other work. Al- 
most all the soldiers from the Salonika front 
have been demobihzed, and the new recruits 
don't need care hke the old soldiers. But on 
the Bulgarian border there is still trouble, and, 
if it keeps up, I may have a canteen somewhere 
on the road near by. Oh, but it's hot, and the 
perspiration pours down my face as I write. 

To Mary W, Tileston. 

AvALA, August 28. 

We got up at three yesterday, and sent off 
our first batch of children on the five o'clock 
train, and to-day a new lot come. They all 
looked much better for their stay here, and sev- 
eral have returned to ask to stay on. As our 
old Serbian woman is not a good cook, I do a 
good deal of cooking,^ and last night I made pop- 
overs, which, with fresh butter, weren't at all 

* For the household of six or eight. 



146 LETTERS OF [1919 

bad. The cook-book that I brought is a great 
help, as without it I could do scarcely anything. 

The Roumanians seem Ukely to give trouble 
about the Banat, which has decided to be Ser- 
bian, so I may return hurriedly to canteens. 
It's a shame if the poor soldiers have to return 
to the front. This work is most useful, but it's 
not work that I care for, so I should return with 
joy to the other. 

Your letters arrive in about three weeks, very 
different from former times. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

AvALA, September 8. 

The days are monotonous and busy. Yes- 
terday we superintended a bath for two hundred 
girls, and gave them all something new — not, 
alas! more than one thing for each child. And 
some of those were far too small, as almost 
everything sent is for little children. It is 
much better to send for children of eight and 
ten, as you can take things in, but you cannot 
make them bigger. We wash the children's 
heads with kerosene when they arrive, which 
accounts for my having to do the same to 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 147 

myself, but now my head is once more unin- 
habited. 

The daughter of Field Marshal Mishitch and 
her daughter are spending a week here, as she 
needed a change, and was told that our food 
was very good. As I do almost all the cooking, 
I feel flattered. 

This camp will close in a few weeks, when the 
weather gets too cold, and I am not sure what 
I shall do next. I should like to start a tuber- 
cular hospital, as that is the most needed help 
that no one else is giving, but if anything else 
is more feasible, we shall do that. 

To Edith Eustis 

AvALA, September 9. 

I hear that the Roimianians have cholera, 
and no suppHes, or else they would be fighting 
us. Materials are still very scarce and high. 
The villagers bring in provisions, and we ex- 
change salt for them, among other things, and, 
as there is no salt about, we feel we are doing a 
kindness to both sides. Apples, blackberries, 
potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggs, and butter 
are the chief of what we get in exchange. 



148 LETTERS OF ]1919 

To Mary W, Tileston 

AvALA, September 14. 

The Serbian harvest started well, but rain 
and hail reduced it greatly. Now the grapes 
are beginning, and, if the present good weather 
continues, there ought to be a fine crop. 

We have had measles, whooping-cough, and 
malaria among the children, besides numerous 
small ailments. We have a Httle dispensary 
where we can take care of them, and a dentist 
at the Scottish Women's Hospital, next to our 
camp, attends to the worst cases of toothache. 

To Edith Eustis 

AvALA, September [Not dated]. 

We close here on the first. We are now 
engaged in getting clothes made for the children 
out of stuff the English have given — the girls 
sewing their own dresses, and a tailor doing 
the boys'. We've been awfully lucky about 
weather, only one rainy day since we started, 
and only two cold days. Now it's warm and 
lovely, and every one envies us being out in 
the country. I am cooking many new dishes, 
and am now an expert cook, so we have all 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 149 

grown fat. Walnuts are in season, bigger ones 
than I ever saw, and grapes are abundant. Al- 
together, we are Hving well. All the children 
look much better for their stay here. Wool is 
scarce, and stockings are always acceptable, 
and also flannelette clothes for girls, but usually 
they are too small; eight and ten year old sizes 
are the best. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

AvALA, October 6. 

Our work here is over, and we are now getting 
everything packed up. We haven't got a room 
in Belgrade yet, nor do we know what we shall 
do next. 

We had quite a number of cases of measles, 
and one very bad case we sent yesterday to the 
hospital. Things out here are still very un- 
settled. I have been very busy cooking, the 
last few days, making the most of the 
good vegetables, eggs, and so forth, out here. 
Belgrade is expensive, and awfully over- 
crowded. The walnuts here are enormous and 
plentiful, but I've eaten so many that I'm tired 
of them. 



150 LETTERS OF [1919 

To Mary W, Tileston 

October 20. 

It has rained part of every day for a fort- 
night, and is quite raw and chilly. We are 
fortunate to have finished our work at the 
camp out of town, as the mud is horribly deep. 
I expect probably to arrange to have a canteen 
in the town across the river, where the soldiers 
have to wait for their trains. But, as no one is 
interested in soldiers any more, I may find it 
impossible to buy sugar, without which I can- 
not carry on. In that case. Miss Simmonds 
and I may work for the High School students, 
of whom there are eight thousand in Belgrade. 

To Mary TF. Tileston 

Belgrade, October 28. 

I am now waiting to hear just where I can 
put the canteen I want to start very near the 
station. A week ago the bridge was finished, 
across the river, and now the trains come into 
the city. As the men sometimes arrive late at 
night, and have nowhere to go, it is especially 
needed. Demobihzation has not yet taken 
place, and, until Italy quiets down, it can't. 
Wool, stockings, and all stuffs are much needed. 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 151 

Fortunately, the corn harvest is good, but the 
plums aren^t a success. 

To Arthur Foote 

November 6. 

Dear Uncle Arthur: Three weeks from to- 
day is Thanksgiving — and I shan't be able to 
join in your festivities! I'm so sorry, but, 
next year — I'll be very present, and come the 
first and outstay the last guest. 

Thank you very much for the cuttings. 
They are interesting but depressing reading. 
What has Boston come to! A pohce strike is 
the end of all law and order. 

The rain has stopped for a few days, and the 
mud is beginning to dry up. In the villages 
the mud comes half-way to the knee. Bel- 
grade is paved with cobble-stones, which makes 
walking very tiring. We have an automobile, 
of sorts — but it's usually out of sorts, and now 
there is no gasoline. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

November 7. 

I am arranging for a canteen by the station^ 
but getting the necessary permits to buy sugar, 



152 LETTERS OF [1919 

get a place, and so forth, takes a sickening 
amount of time. One of my soldiers has three 
children, and is bringing up his dead cousin's 
three, and is in despair, as he can't buy any- 
thing for the few hundred dinars ^ he has to 
spend. 

[Miss Emily Simnaonds writes, ^' After many 
difficulties, and much delay in finding a place 
for the canteen, the civil authorities gave us a 
large room for the purpose on the ground-floor 
of the Hotel Bregalnitza. It was a fine build- 
ing, but had been used as Headquarters by the 
Germans when they occupied Belgrade, and 
they had injured or destroyed all the doors, 
windows, and heating apparatus. With the aid 
of prisoners, we put in windows and doors, had 
the room whitewashed and painted, and made 
very clean and cheerful. The average number 
of soldiers who used it was seven or eight hun- 
dred a day. Before long, an adjoining room, 
with a stove in it, was given us for sleeping 

* The dinar is the value of a franc, about twenty cents 
normally, but it was worth only about five cents at that 
time. 





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1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 153 

quarters for those who were sick, accommodat- 
ing about a hundred and fifty. 

''The Mayor had intended to have students 
on the top floor, but he decided to send them 
elsewhere, and to give it for the use of poor f am- 
iHes whose need was greater. 

''I do not think any piece of work could have 
been more satisfactory. It was entirely Ame- 
Ha's. I only helped her to get it started and 
in running order, as I had had much experience 
the previous year in Belgrade. 

"The personnel of the Red Cross in Belgrade 
have been very congenial, and they, one and all, 
had a sincere admiration for her, and the pluck 
she showed in carrying on such a big piece of 
work."] 

To Mary W, Tileston 

November 22. 

We have been awfully busy getting our can- 
teen started opposite the station. It is in a 
hotel that is to be used upstairs for housing 
about two hundred students from the Gym- 
nasium [High School], downstairs for the can- 
teen. We have three rooms to Uve in upstairs, 



154 LETTERS OF [1919 

a kitchen, sitting-room, and bed-room, and we 
have made our sitting-room really charming 
with Serbian embroideries, and so forth, and 
so forth. It's an ideal situation, as we get the 
soldiers both from the boat and the trains. The 
students haven't got in yet, as there is still a 
lot to do, putting in windows, and so forth. 
We shall probably give tea to them, and medi- 
cal attention, and generally supervise their diet, 
health, and so forth, so we expect to be really 
busy and useful. I expect to stay till the end 
of March, when the cold weather ends, and the 
need for us with it. 

To Marion W. Abbot 

Belgrade, November 28. 

There is a great scarcity of clothing, woollen 
things, and boots. The American Friends are 
doing good work, with the EngUsh, running an 
agricultural school for boys on a farm. 

To Bertha Bailey 

Belgrade, December 15. 

My dear Miss Bailey: Happy New Year to 
you, and to all your nice girls! I should have 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 155 

written to you long ago, but, when I jfirst re- 
turned, I was helping run a camp for four hun- 
dred children, where all the food and so forth, 
was supphed by different English and American 
missions, so I waited till I could tell you how I 
am spending the money so generously given me 
by the girls of Abbot Academy. I have opened 
a tea canteen for passing soldiers, opposite the 
railway station, in what was a hotel before the 
war. We are also opening a place for late ar- 
rivals, who get in too late to find accommoda- 
tion elsewhere, for the station is unheated, and 
at four in the morning, the men are knocking at 
the door, begging to be let in out of the cold. 
For it is cold now, after a three days' snow-storm, 
and every day has been sunless. At the present 
high rate of exchange, nearly four times the nor- 
mal, I have been able to get over four thousand 
dinars for the money you gave me; and that 
will buy sugar for two months and a half. The 
Serbs, unfortunately, hke their tea very sweet, 
so it takes four hundred kilos a month to have 
enough. We get about five hundred men a 
day, and shall be having more, as they will 
shortly be demobihzed, and there will be a rush 



156 LETTERS OF [1919 

going home. The Ministry of War is opening 
a place in the building for the disabled soldiers, 
who come here for their pensions, or to get arti- 
ficial legs or arms, and has asked us to take 
charge of it, so we shan't be idle all winter. 

All the lower floor is to be for the soldiers, but 
upstairs they are putting some of the poor peo- 
ple, who cannot pay for rooms elsewhere. They 
have allowed us three rooms for our personal 
use, a kitchen, bed-, and sitting-room, so we are 
very conveniently situated. The soldiers are 
so grateful, and say that without this place they 
would be indeed wretched. As there are not 
uniforms enough for the recruits, the discharged 
men have their uniforms taken away, and are 
given old, worn-out clothes in exchange. We 
have a few shirts, socks, and so forth, and try 
to fit out the worst cases, but every one ought 
to go home with warm clothing, as they cannot 
buy any clothing in their villages, even if they 
had the money. They have not yet got enough 
sheep to obtain wool to weave themselves 
clothes, or to make stockings, and so forth. 
Clothes are the crying need this winter, and 
boots, which are pitifully scarce. The corn 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 157 

crop was good, so except in very isolated places, 
there will not be much starvation, though no 
one will have enough. Sugar in the shops is 
twelve dinars a kilo, bacon forty, and lard fifty, 
while boots range from a hundred and fifty for 
a poor pair to four hundred dinars for a fairly 
good one. I get a few cases of malaria, who 
appreciate greatly sugar-coated American quin- 
ine pills, — theirs have no coating, and are hor- 
ribly bitter. I know — for IVe taken them! 
Wood is very scarce and dear, a hundred dinars 
a cubic metre, and twenty dinars for cutting it 
up. There is plenty of wood, but the transport 
is lacking, till some of the stolen rolling stock is 
returned. One man came the other day who 
had been a Comitadji (sharp-shooter) for eight 
years, since he was fifteen. He was in the war 
with his eight brothers, and half were killed — 
for I consider his being half dead made him haK 
killed! And he was going home without even 
a loaf of bread, but I got him some for the jour- 
ney, and a shirt, socks, and some bacon to eat 
with his bread. They Hke, horrible to think, 
raw bacon! But that's better than five fish, 
Hke the Japanese! I expect to come home in 



158 LETTERS OF [1919 

April, when the cold will be over — and the 
need for me also. Then I shall take the great- 
est pleasure in coming up to Andover, and re- 
newing the delightful acquaintance with you, 
and your nice flock. Do thank the girls again, 
and tell them that their contribution has done 
a great deal towards making the Serbians' lot a 
little easier to bear. 

I am always very sincerely yours, 

Amelia Tileston. 

To Lucy M. Townsend 

Belgrade, December 16. 

Happy New Year! And the thought that 
you have helped make the lot of the Serbian 
soldiers a Uttle easier, I'm sure pleases you. 

I have a tea canteen, opposite the station, 
for the passing soldiers, of whom we get about 
five hundred a day. It is in what was a hotel 
before the war. We have a big room well 
warmed, with tables, where they can eat, write, 
and so forth, and, as it is the only warm place 
where they can stay without paying (seven 
dinars, francs, a month doesn't give one much 
extra money!) they are very grateful. Soon 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 159 

will come demobilization and a big rush. After 
that, the disabled soldiers will come for their 
pitiful little pensions, artificial legs, arms, and 
so forth, so we shan't be idle. As there are 
not enough uniforms for the recruits, they are 
taking away the clothes of the demobilized 
soldiers, and giving them instead old, worn-out 
clothing. We have a few shirts, socks, and 
so forth, to give them, but not nearly enough. 
Clothing is the great want. The food situa- 
tion is not so bad, as the corn crop was quite 
good, in spite of endless rains. 

The upper part of the hotel is to be filled 
with poor people who can't afford to pay rent, 
and we try to help them, too. We have a 
kitchen, bed-room, and sitting-room upstairs, 
which is very convenient, as we are always on 
call. The weather is fairly cold, and we have 
just had a three days' snow-storm, which 
makes walking very bad. I do most of our 
cooking, which I like, fortunately, as Serbians 
put in too much grease and paprika for our 
taste. Wood is very dear, as transport con- 
ditions are so impossible, for the stolen rolling 
stock has not yet been returned. 



160 LETTERS OF [1919 

To Mary W. Tileston 

Belgrade, December 19. 

By some great stupidity, a big pile of letters 
for me was sent away from here back to Turin, 
and from there to Heaven knows where. I am 
awfully cross, and writing to the Dead Letter 
Office, in case they are there. 

We have had more snow, and it's now clear 
and cold. People daily come here without 
overcoats, and so forth, and so far IVe had 
shirts and socks to give them, but soon these 
will be gone. However, I hope to be able to 
get some more. Everywhere you see people 
clad in the thinnest of old clothes, for most of 
the distribution of clothing was so stupidly 
done that the really poor got nothing. 

We have a great deal of pork, as every other 
meat is horribly tough. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Belgrade, December 29. 

We are going to a fancy dress party on New 
Year's Eve, at the Scottish Women's Hospital. 
I am going as Villa, (owing to the fact that 
Miss Simmonds has a hat like a sombrero). 




< 
u 

<: 
o 



1919] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 161 

I have made a moustache out of a piece of fur, 
and look hke an awful villain. I celebrated 
Christmas by roasting a turkey and giving 
some to some of the poor people here, and the 
soldiers who work for us. In three months, I 
shall be leaving, and on my way home. 

To Helen Rohhins 

Belgrade, December 30. 

Many Happy New Years! I expect to go 
home for keeps the first of April, for with the 
end of the cold weather, the need for me lessens. 
Miss Simmonds and I are running a tea canteen 
opposite the station for passing soldiers, not yet 
demobilized. There are also fifty poor famihes 
in the house whom I try to help, prescribe for 
when ill, and so forth, and the mutilated sol- 
diers, who come here to be fitted with arms and 
legs, are also staying for the few days necessary, 
in the building. We have a big room with 
tables and benches where the men can sit and 
smoke, eat their lunch, write letters, and so 
forth, and another room for the late arrivals to 
sleep in. It's work that no one else would do, 
so I feel it's worth while. One of the English 



162 LETTERS [1919 

missions has given me some shirts, socks, and 
so forth, to give to the worst clothed soldiers. 
However, I shall be awfully glad to go home, 
as I don't think my powers of working are in- 
exhaustible. Much love to you and to F. I do 
love your place on the lake, and look forward 
to another rest. 



I 



1920 

To Edith Eustis 

Belgrade, January 3. 

Happy New Year to you all! We celebrated 
New Year's by having Mr. Gordon-Smith, a 
Scotch war correspondent from Washington, 
who is taking back this letter, and the Hon- 
orable Mrs. Haverfield,! to dinner; soup, roast 
goose, and so forth, cooked by me, and a 
pudding sent out from England to Miss Sim- 
monds — a very good dinner. I'm getting 
ready for the Serbian Christmas, when I shall 
have a treat for the forty poor children who 
Hve in this house, cocoa, rolls and jelly, and 
candy, and some clothing given me by the 
American Red Cross. I shall also have some 
clothes for the women, given by an Enghsh 
Serbian E-ehef Fund, rolls for the seven or eight 
hundred soldiers who come to the canteen, 
cigarettes for the men at the Home for Dis- 
abled Soldiers, and wine and cigarettes for the 

^The Honorable Mrs. Haverfield died of pneumonia in 
March, 1920. She was a great loss. She had just opened an 
orphanage with her own money, and had over eighty chil- 
dren in it. 



164 LETTERS OF [1920 

men at the Blind Soldiers' Home, besides 
giving money to various poor families in the 
house for their Christmas dinner. As there 
are always a few people ill here, to whom I give 
medicine, hot-water bottles, broths, cocoa, and 
so forth, I am quite busy. I feel that this 
winter will be a hard one here; after that, 
things should be easier. 

To Helen T. Chickering 

Belgrade, January 3. 

I confess that I shan't be sorry to turn my 
face toward home in the spring, for I'm rather 
tired of misery. One soldier who came to-day 
had his nose, hands, and ears cut off by the 
Albanians, and was then thrust into the fire. 
He's an awful sight, but is happily eating beans 
with the stumps of his hands. 

To Edith Eustis 

January 12. 

Many, many thanks for the money. I shall 
use part of it to buy food for the mutilated 
soldiers who spend a few days here on their 
way to get artificial hmbs. Also, I shall pay 
the rent for some poor famiUes that I know, 



1920] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 165 

and buy extra food for the sickly ones. Al- 
together, you have no idea how much it will 
do. I am kept quite busy, and it is doing work 
that would otherwise not be done, so I feel 
satisfied. An EngHsh Mission is to give me 
women's clothes, and the American Red Cross 
have given me some sweaters and socks for the 
invalid soldiers, so I am very popular — tem- 
porarily. We have had several presents of 
parts of roast pig, so we are eating Hke the 
Serbians. Thank Posy for the butter sugges- 
tion, but, now I can buy butter, and make hot 
rolls to put it on, I am far better nourished 
than before. 

To Edith Eustis 

January 25. 

Miss Simmonds leaves to-morrow for Ragusa, 
to open a disinfecting station for the American 
Red Cross, for returning Jugo-Slav prisoners, 
so I shall be alone. 

To Mary W. Tileston 

January 25. 

I am very busy, giving out clothes to the 
women and children of the place, and also to 



166 LETTERS OF [1920 

the soldiers, who are being sent home after they 
have had to give up their overcoats, and so 
forth. I get up at four every morning, and go 
across the road to the station, and give sweaters 
or mufflers to the neediest soldiers, also ciga- 
rettes. Then I come back and sleep for a 
couple of hours before I get up for the day. 
It's quite cold now, and I expect it will soon 
snow. I also have several patients for whom 
I cook httle dehcacies, largely rice pudding, 
which they adore, and cocoa. 

To Mary W, Tileston 

Belgrade, February 8. 

One nice old man is quite ill here, and, as 
he is all alone, I am taking care of him, and 
pay an old woman to keep things clean. Great 
is the power of money, and four dinars instead 
of one makes one rich. 

To Winslow W, Churchill 

Belgrade, February 8. 

I am very busy, as I get up at quarter of 
four to heat tea for the invalid soldiers who 
leave on the early train. I also give cigarettes 




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1920] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 167 

to the other soldiers on it, and, when I have 
them, socks, sweaters, and shirts to the men 
who have been demobbed, and are going home 
in old clothes, without coats or blankets. 
They travel for three or four days in unheated 
box-cars, and it's very cold now. The uni- 
forms are needed for the recruits. I also give 
cocoa or rice pudding to forty children in the 
house, look after the sick people, and am to 
run the kitchen for the invahded soldiers who 
spend a few days in Belgrade, seeing about 
artificial Hmbs, pensions — thirty dinars a 
month — and so forth, and so forth. I have 
about seven hundred a day in the canteen, 
besides sleeping accommodations for about a 
hundred and fifty. The need for me will end 
with the cold weather, so I shall leave in April. 



The illness which ended her life of service on 
earth began on Wednesday, February 11. She 
was sick for six days in her room, where Sveto- 
zar waited on her, and she supposed that it 
was simply a fresh attack of malaria. On 
Monday, the 16th, she felt much worse; her 



168 LETTERS OF [1920 

heart was very weak, and she sent for Dr. 
Kopchah, a Serbian friend, who gave her 
temporary relief. The next day, he found 
that she had pneumonia, and she was taken 
in the afternoon to the Scottish Women's 
Hospital, which was near the canteen. There 
she was found to be in a critical condition. 
Everything possible was done for her, and she 
was nursed day and night with unwearied 
devotion; but her heart had been so much 
weakened by malaria that, although she ap- 
peared so well and strong, she could not bear 
the strain of the pneumonia, after all that she 
had been through. 

When her heart collapsed, she courageously 
faced death, and she wrote in pencil, evidently 
with difficulty, short notes to her mother and 
brothers and sisters, containing words of affec- 
tion and farewell and absolute faith in reunion. 
She wrote, also, directions about her canteen, 
and a note to the American Legation, saying 
that she wished to be buried in Belgrade. 

One of her nurses wrote, ^^She was very 
peaceful and quiet and patient. At first, she 
said that she had a pain in her side, but she 



1920] AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 169 

soon said that it was better, and she did not 
seem to suffer any more. A good deal of the 
time, she was murmuring DohrOj^ and her ex- 
pression was very sweet — at times remark- 
ably so." In her dehrium, she talked about 
her work, and about the Serbs, and nearly 
always in their language. Even in her de- 
lirium, she was quiet, lying still and talking 
softly in Serbian. She was unconscious the 
day she died, and passed away peacefully at a 
quarter before four in the afternoon of February 
twenty-second. 

Her funeral, the following Tuesday, in Bel- 
grade, was an outpouring of love and gratitude 
from great multitudes. As a tribute to her 
work for Serbia, the municipality gave the 
burial plot. After the service in the Httle 
EngHsh Chapel, the casket, covered with the 
American flag and a profusion of flowers, was 
placed in a military ambulance and taken to 
the cemetery outside the city. It was preceded 
by the Prince Regent's band and followed by a 
procession over a mile long, consisting of the 

^Dohro means "Good," "That's good," and "All right." 
It is constantly used to express satisfaction and assent. 



170 LETTERS [1920 

American Colony, representatives of the Prince 
Regent and of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs 
and of War, all the regiments in the city, all 
the school-children, and thousands of Serbians. 
It is well that her grave should be where it will 
continually recall her to the memory of those 
whom she loved and served so devotedly. 



MEMORIAL SERVICE 



A memorial service was held in King's 
Chapel, Boston, on Friday, April 9. Reverend 
Henry Wilder Foote read the service, and the 
organ was played by her uncle, Arthur Foote. 
The Serbian and American flags were in the 
chancel. 



SERVICE IN MEMORY OF 

AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 
King's Chapel 

I am the resurrection and the Hfe, saith the 
Lord: he that beheveth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he hve: and whosoever Hveth 
and beheveth in me shall never die. 

Though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou 
art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they com- 
fort me. 

The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
away; blessed be the name of the Lord. 

Psalm XC. 

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelHng-place in 
all generations. 

Before the mountains were brought forth, or 
ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
even from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art 
God. 

For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as 



174 MEMORIAL SERVICE 

yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the 
night. 

Thou earnest them away as with a flood; 
they are as a sleep: in the morning they are 
hke grass which groweth up. 

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth 
up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 

So teach us to number our days, that we may 
apply our hearts unto wisdom. 

O satisfy us early with Thy mercy; that we 
may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

Let thy work appear unto Thy servants, and 
Thy glory unto their children. 

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be 
upon us: and estabUsh Thou the work of our 
hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands 
estabhsh Thou it. 

Hymn, "The Son of God goes forth to war." 

Reading of Scripture. 

Let not your heart be troubled: ye beheve 
in God, believe also in me. 
In my Father's house are many mansions: 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 175 

if it were not so, I would have told you. I go 
to prepare a place for you. 

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I 
will come again, and receive you unto myself; 
that where I am, there ye may be also. 

If ye love me, keep my commandments. 

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
you another Comforter, that He may abide with 
you for ever. 

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth 
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that 
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I 
will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto 
you: not as the world giveth, give I imto you. 
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it 
be afraid. 

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of 
God, and there shall no torment touch them. 
In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; 
and their departure is taken for misery, and 
their going from us to be utter destruction; 
but they are in peace. 

If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and 
satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy Hght 



176 MEMORIAL SERVICE 

rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the 
noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee con- 
tinually. 

When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; 
and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to 
me: because I delivered the poor that cried, 
and the fatherless, and him that had none to 
help him. The blessing of him that was ready 
to perish came upon me: and I caused the 
widow^s heart to sing for joy. I was eyes to 
the bhnd, and feet was I to the lame. 

Then shall the King say unto them on His 
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world: 

For I was an himgred, and ye gave me meat: 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a 
stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye 
clothed me: I was sick and ye visited me: I 
was in prison, and ye came unto me. 

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, 
Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed 
Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When 
saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 177 

naked, and clothed Thee? or when saw we 
Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? 

And the King shall answer and say unto 
them. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ve have done it unto me. 

Hymn. ^^Ten thousand times ten thousand." 

Prayeks. 

Oiu' Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for 
all who have walked in Thy Hght, and es- 
pecially for those near to us and dear, in whose 
lives we have seen Thine excellent glory and 
beauty. May we know that out of the body 
as in the body they are with Thee, and that, 
when these earthly days come to an end, it is 
not that our service of Thee and of one another 
may cease, but that it may begin anew. Make 
us glad in all who have faithfully hved; make 
us glad in all who have peacefully died. Lift 
us into light and love and purity and blessed- 
ness; and give us at last our portion with those 



178 MEMORIAL SERVICE 

who have trusted in Thee, and sought in all 
things to do Thy holy will. And unto Thy 
blessed name do we ascribe all honor and glory, 
world without end. Amen. 

O merciful and gracious Lord, Hft up our 
hearts to that world which is the souFs true 
home, and grant that with the loosing of these 
earthly ties we may care more for the things 
of eternal hfe; so that when our call shall 
come, we may leave this world in peace, having 
been faithful over that which Thou hast ap- 
pointed us, and being ready to enter into the 
company of the blessed, and to share the eternal 
joys of Thy Kingdom above, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Almighty God, our only true and lasting 
hght, look upon us with Thy constant mercy; 
when our eyes no longer behold those whom we 
have loved, we turn to Thee. Strengthen our 
faith that though gone from our sight, they are 
in some other of Thy divine mansions; and 
that one day the door of death shall open, and 
we, passing through, shall behold them radiant 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 179 

with Thy Ufe. Comfort us, strengthen us, 
guide us to the end, and afterward receive us to 
Thy glory. Amen. 

Ahnighty God, Lord of all saints and of all 
souls, look upon us, and so guide and govern 
us by Thy spirit that we may come at last to 
take part with that great host who, looking 
back upon the way in which they have been 
led, praise and magnify Thy holy name. Amen. 

Hymn. ^'For all the saints who from their 
labors rest." 

Address. 

We have met to-day to honor the memory 
of one who died at her post Hke a true soldier, 
working for the rehef of the Serbians, as she 
had done during several years of the war. We 
can feel that her Hfe has not been thrown away, 
but rather offered up in a cause worth the 
sacrifice. 

She had always helped the poor and unfor- 
tunate, the lonely and the sad, in many ways, 



180 MEMORIAL SERVICE 

and the world war brought such an appeal to 
her sympathy, that she could not be happy 
unless she gave herself with all her powers to 
the rehef of the suffering which it caused. 

She went abroad in October, 1914, and nursed 
awhile in a hospital in England. Then she 
went to France and Italy to do rehef work. 
There she was told of the typhus epidemic 
which was raging in Serbia, and of their great 
need of assistance. She went there with a 
friend, but circumstances arose which obhged 
her to give it up and come away, to her intense 
disappointment. Her one idea from that time 
was to return there, and she studied the Serbian 
language assiduously, in the hope that she 
might find the desired opportunity. 

She went abroad again in March, 1916, de- 
termined to find a way of serving them and 
she remained there until her death, coming 
home only once. 

Her chief work, for a year and a half, was 
carrying on canteens or comfort stations in 
Macedonia, near the Serbian frontier, for the 
soldiers who were on the last stage of their 
long cold march back to the front Hnes after 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 181 

having been in the hospital. She gave them 
the only hot food they had on their weary 
march of several days. Many were barefoot, 
and she took care of their bhstered feet, giving 
them medicine also, if they needed it, and, 
above all bestowing on them a sisterly kind- 
ness and sympathy. When they had driven 
the Bulgarians out of their country, she followed 
them into Serbia in the same canteen service. 

She came home last year in May, and spent 
two months in this country. She was much 
worn, but could not be persuaded to stay long 
enough to rest, for she felt that she would be 
specially needed during the following months. 

Last winter, in Belgrade, she arid Miss 
Simmonds carried on a canteen opposite the 
railway station, where from four to eight 
hundred soldiers a day stopped, as they passed 
through on their journey to their homes. The 
large room where they spent the evening, and 
had refreshments and a chance to write letters, 
was the only place in the city where they could 
stay and be warm, without payment. A 
number of those who were not well, spent the 
night in an adjoining room. At four o'clock 



182 MEMORIAL SERVICE 

in the morning she took hot tea, and sweaters 
and mufflers when possible, to give them before 
they started on their journey of three or four 
days, in unheated box-cars. Then she rested 
for a couple of hours, before beginning her 
regular day's work. She also took care of 
many sick people, cooked them deUcacies, dis- 
tributed clothing to the poor, and was called 
on for help and sympathy continually all day 
long. 

She kept up this work till February 11, when 
she began to be ill, and pneumonia developed 
on Tuesday, the 17th. She died peacefully on 
Sunday afternoon, February 22, after receiving 
most devoted and skilful care at the Scottish 
Women's Hospital. 

Her funeral was a tribute of love and grati- 
tude to her and, without doubt, to America as 
well. She was borne to the cemetery outside 
the city on a mihtary ambulance, draped with 
the American flag, and covered with flowers, 
and followed by a procession over a mile long, 
consisting of representatives of the Govern- 
ment, all the regiments in the city, all the school 
children, and thousands of Serbians. 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 183 

She gave herself with full devotion to those 
whom she thus helped with such warm, un- 
wearied personal interest. She spared not her- 
self in any of the exhausting labor of giving 
food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, shelter 
to the weary, of visiting the sick, and of bind- 
ing up the wounds of those who had borne the 
weight of battle. 

"And the voice that was softer than silence said, 
*Lo, it is I, be not afraid. 
In many climes, without avail, 
Thou hath spent thy life for the Holy GraU: 
Behold, it is here — this cup which thou 
Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now; 
This crust is my body broken for thee, 
This water his blood, that died on the tree; 
The Holy Supper is kept indeed. 
In whatso we share with another's need; 
Not what we give, but what we share. 
For the gift without the giver is bare; 
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three. 
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.' " 

Benediction. 

The Lord bless you, and keep you. The 
Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be 
gracious imto you. The Lord Hft up His 



184 MEMORIAL SERVICE 

countenance upon you, and give you peace, 
both now and evermore. Amen. 

Organ. Serbian National Hymn. 
"The Star Spangled Banner." 



TRIBUTES TO HER MEMORY 



TRIBUTES TO HER MEMORY 

From Colonel Dr, Petkovitch to Emily Sim- 
monds 

NiSH. 

Dear Miss Simmonds: Three days ago I 
received your very kind letter, and I am trying 
to send you the answer as soon as possible. 

Really the death of our friend is a non- 
reparable loss for our Serbian people, and the 
mourning of our soldiers, comforted by her, 
will be everlasting. 

But your loss is greater; you have lost a war 
fellow and friend that has supported all the 
fortunes and the misfortunes — such a friend 
is the greatest of God's gifts — but at the 
same time you must have pride because you 
were collaborating with her. You two have 
done splendid work in the right way under 
most difficult conditions, and she has given her 
earthly hfe for holy work, as all the great 
workers have done. 

The American nation can be very satisfied 



188 TRIBUTES TO 

and proud to have had such a veritable Jeanne 
d'Arc in the most Christian meaning, like our 
Maid of Kossovo, who is fighting without sword, 
but always comforting the wounded and ex- 
hausted soldiers. 

Alas! it is a loss for humanity that her work 
was so httle known during her hfe, and that 
she should have had so much trouble from the 
people whose duty it was to help her. I can 
never forget the splendid work she did for our 
soldiers at Vladova, in spite of all obstacles. I 
remember in July, 1918, she came to see me at 
Tressina, and told me she had walked all the 
way from Vertekop, about thirty kilometers. 
I took her back in the car, and we had chosen 
the road exposed to shell-fire. She was very 
proud and satisfied, and said to me, *^What a 

pity Miss is not with us, as she would be 

so pleased to have her car driven on the bom- 
barded road." 

She was a hero as much as any one fighting 
on the battle-field, and her mother and yourself 
should not mourn, but be proud that she has 
given her life in the cause. That is the Serbian 
custom, and a good one. 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 189 

From Madame Sophie Gielniewska to Mrs, Mary 
W. Tileston 

Salonica, Ayril 5, 1920. 

Dear Madam: You mourn your daughter, 
and I mourn an admirable friend that I have 
known and esteemed years and years! I re- 
ceived the sad news of Miss Tileston^s death a 
few days ago, and I cannot express all the pain 
I felt! I am very sorry for you, dear Madam, 
still I must congratulate you on such a splendid 
daughter. A noble soul, generous, most chari- 
table, and a real Christian without selfishness, 
always thinking of others, and working for the 
most destitute Serbian soldiers, and the nu- 
merous refugees that flocked from all sides. 

Dear Miss Tileston acted as only real saints 
act. She gave up the comfort, the Httle lux- 
uries of her social standing, to hve among poor 
peasants, talking soothing words to them in 
their own language, eating the same rough 
food, sleeping in the same primitive abodes — 
she, used to dainties and intellectual circles — 
this splendid New England woman! 

I have heard simple Serbian soldiers speak in 
high terms of her, saying, '^She gives away all 



190 TRIBUTES TO 

she has, and never forgets anybody." Her 
modesty was equal to her divine charity. May 
the Serbian earth weigh hght on her mortal 
rests! Her funeral was mihtary, splendid — 
many wept. 

A few weeks ago, she wrote to me that she 
had the intention to return to America, but 
would visit me, and rest some days here in 
Salonica, at my old Turkish house that she 
Hked so well, and named it an oasis in the 
desert. Helas! she has gone to the eternal 
rest, and I saw the last of her last year, before 
she sailed for the States. 

In our days of suffering, miseries, social 
changes, it is a great moral comforting to think 
that there are real Christians who have pure 
notions of the duties of a true follower of Christ. 
Alas! dear Miss Tileston might have helped 
still so much, and it is very sad she had to die 
now. She was overworked, and had roughest 
years and years. 

Dear Madam, please accept the sincere ex- 
pression of my most sincere feehngs. 
Your child^s friend, 

Sophie Gielniewska.^ 

1 See pages 62 and 120. 



AMELIA PEABODY TILESTON 191 

From Emily Simmonds to Edith Eustis 

May 18, 1920. 

Indeed, you have cause to be proud of Amelia. 
There is not enough that can or will be said of 
all that she has done in Serbia. Certainly no 
other one American woman has her wonderful 
record. She was most unselfish and untiring — 
many times I have tried to get her to rest a 
Httle. Looking back, it seems to me that she 
somehow must have known, and was trjdng to 
get it all into the shortest space of time. The 
^'old soldier'^ ^ she was so interested in did not 
have pneumonia, but went to the hospital, 
where he was transferred to a convalescent 
place, and I am still trying to trace him. There 
are so many of these poor people to whom she 
gave back the wish to Hve, just by her helpful- 
ness and sympathy. 

Emily Simmonds. 

From Thomas W. Farnum ^ to Wilder Tileston 

New Haven, March 2, 1920. 

1 saw the notice of your sister^s death in the 
morning paper. A flood of recollections comes 

^ See page 166. 

2 Mr. Farnum had been in Serbia on a tour of inspection 
for the Red Cross. 



192 TRIBUTES 

to me of Serbia, its mountains and valleys, its 
people and their difficulties, and the courage 
with which they've risen to meet the recon- 
struction problems. No one knows better than 
I what a tremendous factor, in restoring and 
fostering their courage, the hfe your sister has 
laid down has been. Working alone much of 
the time, under terrible conditions, she made 
every sacrifice to help with personal service the 
peasants she was so fond of. 

The last time I saw her in Belgrade I could 
see the physical strain had begun to weaken 
her, but, though she admitted being tired, 
there was no wavering in her spirit, and in her 
determination to keep on. She gained the 
greatest satisfaction one can gain, that of know- 
ing she had won the love of the people she was 
working with and for. 

My admiration is so sincere that I cannot 
help writing, with the hope that your sorrow 
may be lessened a Httle bit by my testimony. 
She has completed a splendid work in a brave, 
fine way. What more can any one ask of life! 



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